History of Australia and New Zealand From 1606 to 1890

by Alexander Sutherland

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

287 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 12, 2012

About the author

Alexander Sutherland (1852-1902) was a Scottish- Australian educator, writer and philosopher. Sutherland did a large amount of literary work. He was responsible for the first volume only of Victoria and its Metropolis, published in 1888, an interesting history of the first 50 years of the state of Victoria. In 1890 he published Thirty Short Poems, the cultured verse of an experienced literary man, but his most important book was The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, which appeared in 1898 in two volumes.

Reviews

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a detailed history of the discovery of Australia and New Zealand and their colonization up until 1890. The role of convicts and natives are discussed although most of the history involves the political, social, and economic development of the two countries. It presents an unbiased general history.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Source for the Early Years

This book was written more than a century ago. It provides interesting insights into the early days of Australia and Northern Zealand. It is quite biased towards the British, but is still a good glimpse into the settling of these nations.

[Mo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio version was excellent on Librivox.
Rewarding to hear history as it was written only 1-2 generations after the events. How differently history is interpreted with a modern bias & through a politically correct lens. It is so important to consider the context & complexities of the time period and judge these brave immigrants & the unfortunate indigenous races with compassion.

[Janette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though there are lots of people/places I don't know, it was well written and kept my interest.

[Christopher Tang]

Thoughts at 25% in.
This book really reminds me of people complaining about History being "the study of dead white guys". Growing up in an era of a more multi-cultural (if not perfect) approach, I had forgotten how racist Victorians could be. Native Australians are described as either animals or a force of nature. The one guy (a Captain Mitchell) who is exploring the continent and refuses to pull out a gun on the Natives and who then is famous in his retirement for bragging that he "never harmed a black man" is described as being tricky and outsmarting the natives rather than as being humane and being reciprocated as such.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to read a history book from this time period, where you get the facts coloured with that charming eurocentric racism. I was hoping there would be more about Western Australia. All in all this refreshed my memory from high school history. However, I don't know much at all about the history of New Zealand, and from reading the brief chapters about it in this book it seems like the history is waaaay more interesting than Australian history.

[Levent Mollamustafaoglu · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written in 1890. It is giving an early history of Australia and New Zealand, but of course most of the events which made these two nations happened in the 20th Century, so it is only mildly interesting as a 19th century account of the history of these two lands.

[Waseem · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is well-written; however, the author displays minimal empathy towards the suffering of the Aboriginal people at the hands of settlers, particularly in the case of Tasmania