Australia: A New History of the Great Southern Land Paperback – July 29, 2008

Frank Welsh has written an extremely well written, witty, scholarly, balanced and very long work on the history of Australia. The footnotes are excellent for further research and with the bibliography are almost one hundred pages long! The illustrations are ok, and the maps are useful but could have been somewhat better; many of the places mentioned do not appear.Th author's balance of view deserves praise. Although I might describe myself as a "Battler" and Welsh I suspect is a "Chardonnay Socialist" the coverage of contemporary issues is fairly presented.Welsh rejects the "PC" approach in covering relations with the Aborigenes; the mis-treatment of whom while unconscionable has been over-emphasized... "It should be recorded, remembered, regretted, and accorded only their proper place." The author rejects historical post-modernism, and supports the Windschuttle school of historical accuracy in dealing with the Aborigenes. The approach to settlement is less histrionic than that of Hughes, particularly on Irish political prisoners.The weakest part of the book is a lengthy description of the process be which "representative" and then "responsible" governments were established; almost one hundred tedious pages as each of the six states are dealt with. This is more than balanced by descriptions of the Melbourne-Sydney rivalries and how regionalism led to a chaotic train system of three different gauges.The strongest parts of the book are those that deal with economic issues; the economic problems that Australia faced in the 1880's are similar to the crisis America has to deal with today. Particularly usefull was the discussion of post World War 2 Australia; handicapped by inept leaders and manipulative allies it faced problems in Indonesia and New Guinea. (Yet Welsh shows less sympathy for the Caribbean problems of America) The issues in contemporary Australia such as the Liberal Party moving to the right, reversing the economic welfare state and of Labor and immigration issues are well covered.Mr Welsh is at his weakest when he makes references to America; for example the New York riots of July 1863 were Draft Riots, and although having a strong racial undercurrent, were not a response to the 10 monthearlier Emancipation Proclamation as he asserts.This is a must read for anyone interested in the [political and economic history of Australia.

this is just what I needed after visiting earlier this year and wanting to know more of the history and starts at the very beginning of Australia and up to the present day

Read this on vacation to Australia. He makes history an easy and interesting read. I was learning and enjoying.

Great book, lots of history!

"Australia: A New History of the Great Southern Land" by Frank Welsh is a very good attempt at providing a complete and concise history of Australia from a perspective of Europeans, and from the point where Europeans became aware of it and decided to colonize it. Of course, it isn't possible to provide much in the way of history from the aboriginal people who have lived there for 40,000 years or so, and that will forever be our loss.The first chapter covers the growing awareness of the Southern land by the different countries of Europe. This is followed by several chapters detailing the colonization, first of New South Wales and the proceeding to other parts of the continent and Tasmania. Welsh does a good job of discussing the formation of each of the colonies and how they developed, and their need to be joined, but as well the resistance to joining which had to be overcome. The next significant period is that of Federation and its development as a nation as it moved from relying almost exclusively on Great Britain to more reliance on the United States.Mr. Welsh does a thorough job covering events, politics, social attitudes, international relations, and key figures throughout the history. It is interesting to see Australia develop from a continent which nobody was very interested in initially, to a penal colony, to a group of colonies, to a commonwealth, and finally to a significant Western power which is physically closer to Asia and Eastern cultures than it is the West. This provides a unique and unusual dynamic to the country. On the cultural front, there is also significant development from one thought of as criminal, to one which was very racist for the majority of its history, but has in the last half-century become amazingly diverse and open to different cultures, ideas, and people.From a personal perspective, I can add that it is interesting that, while there is still evidence of the prior racism here, it seems to have left far fewer scars than have been left in the U.S., though I must admit that there is still a lot of the country which I have left to experience. Nevertheless, the progress in diversity and attitude is amazing to see, as both Melbourne and Sydney are very international cities, and even the often thought of as backward Tasmania does a good job of promoting the positive aspects of different cultures and being open to them.Welsh's history of Australia was published in 2004, so it is missing the last five years, and the transition from John Howard and the Liberal party to Kevin Rudd and the Labor party. However, other than that, the only problem I found was a rather minor statement that Reagan had been elected President in 1979 (it was in fact 1980), and the error is hardly significant to the point being made. The writing is a bit dry in places, but it does have excellent notes and a good bibliography as well. I can't rate this as high as Hughes "The Fatal Shore" or Keneally's "A Commonwealth of Thieves", but then again neither of them provides a complete history of the country, and so they do a better job in their area of focus.

Is okey, though not written in a very interesting way. The author has to spend every other page of the book speaking about the Australian aborigines (although they make up just 2 percent of the population), and has to keep on making fun of the whites for banning immigration from asian countries, while Australia's asian neighbors such as china would never allow massive white immigration.

RECEIVED FREE COPY FROM LIBRARYSadly, my knowledge of Australia was limited to Crocodile Dundee, Mad Max, Steve Irwin, and the band Men at Work. This massive tome provided an education that remedied that.

Best history of Australia for the general reader that I've found. Very thorough, but easy reading and enjoyable. I'd recommend it to anyone

A comprehensive well balanced and realistic appraisal of Modern Australia

Very thorough appraisal of Australia's history