Working Australia

by Charlie Fox

"Working Australia" is the first comprehensive narrative history of work in Australia. It sets out to cover the country's work history, its many localities, meanings, circumstances and arrangements. Beginning with pre-history, it follows several themes through to the Aborigines and work, women, men and work, and the migrant experience. It examines the histories of work in city and bush, the contrasting place of work in working- and middle-class lives, and the conflicts between workers, management and the state. It concludes with some provocative remarks on the present and future. "Working Australia" opens up to its readers a history that historians have by and large forgotten. It is a history of how the growth of a complex industrial economy was experienced by those who pushed the pens, guided the ploughs, raised the children, and made the cars, and by those who organized them to do it. It is also a history of oppression and exploitation, courage, fortitude and resistance. "Charles Fox lectures in history at the University of Western Australia.". This book is intended for students and researchers in social and economic history.

220 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 1991