The Cambridge History of Australia: Volume 1, Indigenous and Colonial Australia

The Cambridge History of Australia #1

by Alison Bashford (Editor), Stuart Macintyre (Editor)

Volume 1 of The Cambridge History of Australia explores Australia's history from ancient times through to Federation in 1901. It begins with an archaeological examination of the continent's Indigenous history, which dates back 50,000 years. This volume examines the first European encounters with Australia and its Indigenous people, and the subsequent colonisation of the land by the British in the late eighteenth century, providing insight into the realities of a convict society and how this shaped the nation's development. Part I traces the dynamic growth in Australia's economy, demography and industry throughout the nineteenth century, as it moved towards a system of liberal democracy and one of the most defining events in its history: the Federation of the colonies in 1901. Part II offers a deeper investigation of key topics, such as relations between Indigenous people and settlers, and Australia's colonial identity. It also covers the economy, science and technology, law and literature.

Genres: History, Australia, Nonfiction

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Alison Bashford is Director of the Laureate Centre for the History of Population at the University of New South Wales.

Reviews

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid, detailed history of Australia (up to 1901 for part 1 here), the chronological exploration in the first chapters paint fascinating pictures of eras that had distinct feels (the continent before Human arrival, the Aboriginal period of 10,000s of years, the Pastoralist domination of the early 1800s, the 1850s-60s Gold Rush, the movement of federation most strong during the 1890s depression, etc).

Australian history is really just a continuation of British history and that does shine in the book, but learning about how we as a British people developed our society in vivid detail was nice (both the good, neutral and bad elements).

The second portion of the book then focuses on topics like culture, religion etc., some are quite interesting although some get quite dry (the Literature and most of the Maritime chapters were quite dry due to my personal lack of interest in such matters), however it was great to get that holistic look at our nation's history. It's a great book, recommended for those who want a detailed dive on Australia.

Debates such as: The cause of the extinction of the Megafauna, the exact slavery/willingness dynamic of the Pacific Islander plantation workers in the north etc. allowed for an introduction to interesting, uncertain/contentious issues. The book fixated a lot upon the idiosyncratic, the non-European migrants for example (despite being a very low proportion of the population they were key during the Victorian Gold rush, and were prevalent in the sparsely populated North). I learned a lot about my country, and have developed a greater interest and appreciation for its history, that I will love to keep exploring in the future. 8/10.

[Julia Gilchrist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this! At times a little too Eurocentric (see the British-based publishers) but so comprehensively well written for the cultural and historical lens each contributing historian offered.

This text is separated into chronological periods, with a second section if you will, concentrating on themes like environment, culture, religion, to fill in the social history. This places decade-by-decade events into a context where you capture the "feel" of the times. This is quite difficult to do if you're not an eyewitness but relying on primary and secondary source material.

The various voices and interpretations of what was happening with new facts and perspectives gives a real colour to events covered in this book. Some I already knew about, but new voices helped me see where I hadn't fully appreciated the significance of some activities we've engaged in as a nation. A great example is the section on religion. The different drivers behind church attendance and participation were explained and compared to people's changing engagement with spiritual growth and development over time. It was also so demographically specific- think Nimbin nimbys compared to the Indigenous track record on spirituality, country and song lines. This type of approach to writing about history makes this book well worth a read. Im looking forward to getting into Volume 2.

[Luke · Rating 2 out of 5]

at times poorly written, mostly devoid of any sophisticated commentary, and paying only token consideration to atsi perspectives and history (the chapter on religion devotes a shocking one page to atsi religion).

[Woflmao · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cambridge History of Australia consists of two volumes (unfairly counted as only one book for goodreads reading challenge), the first one covering everything from the arrival of the first Aboriginies to the beginning of the 20th century, when Australia became formally an independent nation, and the second volume covering the 20th and early 21st century, up to election of Tony Abbott as prime minister.
Each volume is divided in two parts, of which the first one is a chronological account of the volume's respective time period, and the second part a selection of articles on particular issues such as science, the economy, gender and race relations, etc.
It is easy to believe that Australia, as a relatively young country, does not have a very memorable history. Unfortunately, this book can hardly make a case to the contrary. The chronological parts are quite dense and often do not amount to much more of a verbalised timetable of events, whereas the specialised sections are often tedious and go on in great length about things on which there is nothing to say. I believe it would have been better to give the chronological parts twice as much space and leave out the special issues, so that historical events could have been not just presented by also analysed in more detail, with more attention given to the causes and effects of political events. For example, having read the section on the Whitlam government just a few days after Whitlam's death in October 2014, I certainly learned much more about the Whitlam years through the obituaries in the press than through this book (the same holds for the information on Malcolm Fraser's government, writing this one day after his death).
The book's redeeming features are its usefulness as a reference, since through its structure it is easy enough to look up certain events and find concise information on them.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given that this is a two volume work with excellent authors, it could have been better. It is good in parts and patchy in others. For example, the significant role of manufacturing in Australia's history is essentially ignored.