Australians: Origins to Eureka by Thomas Keneally
The outstanding first volume of acclaimed author Thomas Keneally's major new three-volume history of Australia brings to life the vast range of characters who have formed Australia's national story Convicts and Aborigines, settlers and soldiers, patriots and reformers, bushrangers and gold seekers-it is from their lives and their stories that Tom Keneally has woven a vibrant history to do full justice to the rich and colorful nature of Australia's unique national character. The story begins by looking at European occupation through Aboriginal eyes, moving between the city slums and rural hovels of 18th-century Britain and the shores of Port Jackson. Readers spend time on the low-roofed convict decks of transports and see the bewilderment of the Eora people as they see the first ships of turaga, or ghost people. They follow the daily round of Bennelong and his wife Barangaroo and the tribulations of warrior Windradyne. Convicts like Solomon Wiseman and John Wilson find their feet and even fortune, while Henry Parkes' arrival as a penniless immigrant gives few clues to the national statesman he was to become. Chinese diggers trek to the goldfields, and revolutionaries like Italian Raffaello Carboni and black American John Joseph bring readers the drama of the Eureka uprising. Tom Keneally has brought to life the high and the low, the convict and the free of early Australian society. This is truly a new history of Australia, by an author of outstanding literary skill and experience, whose own humanity permeates every page. Editorial Reviews From Booklist *Starred Review* This is the first volume in an ambitious and widely anticipated history of Keneally's native Australia. This opening effort begins with a geologic description of the formation of the continent as it separated from the supercontinent of Pangaea about 140 million years ago. It concludes with the Eureka miner rebellion, a critical episode in the development of Australian democracy. Keneally, a Booker Prize-winning novelist and nonfiction writer, utilizes some wonderful vignettes gleaned from primary sources to advance his narrative. Aborigines, transplanted convicts, settlers, soldiers, and miners all play their part. Keneally conveys the sense of wonder and confusion as Aborigines encounter their first European. Convicts describe the suffering aboard transport ships and the grind of carving out an existence in a new and harsh land. There are recurring themes: first, Keneally stresses the exotic quality of the land, produced by its geographic isolation. And, second, he traces the steady evolution from a hierarchical social structure to a more egalitarian, democratic civilization. This is a wonderful beginning of a project that should provide enjoyment for both general readers and scholars. --Jay Freeman About the Author Thomas Keneally is a novelist, playwright, and nonfiction author who is best-known for the Booker Prize?winning novel Schindler's Ark, which was adapted into the movie Schindler's List. His other titles include the Penguin Lives biography Abraham Lincoln, American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles, and A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia.
Publication Details
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Binding: Hardcover
Published by: Allen & Unwin: , 2010
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ISBN: 9781741750690 | 1741750695
628 pages.
Book Condition: Very Good
Dj has minor tear at rear
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