Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Australia : A Cultural History - John Rickard

Australia

A Cultural History

By: John Rickard

Paperback | 1 November 2017 | Edition Number 3

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $39.95

$37.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $9.44 with

 or 

Available for Backorder. We will order this from our supplier however there isn't a current ETA.

John Rickard’s Australia: A Cultural History, first published in 1988, is still the only short history of Australia from a cultural perspective. It has also acquired a reputation as an introduction to the development of Australian society and was listed by the historian and public intellectual John Hirst in his ‘First XI: The best Australian history books’.

Although arranged chronologically, this book is not a chronicle, still less a laborious detailing of governors and governments: rather, it focuses on the transmission of values, beliefs, and customs amongst the diverse mix of peoples who are today’s Australians. The story begins with sixty thousand years of Aboriginal presence and their continuing material and spiritual relationship with the land, and takes the reader through the turbulent years of British colonisation and the emergence, through prosperity, war, and depression, of the cultural accommodations which have been distinctively Australian. This third edition concludes with a critical review of the challenges facing contemporary Australia and warns readers that ‘we may get the future we deserve’.

About the Author

John Rickard is the author of H B Higgins: The Rebel as Judge (Age non-fiction Book of the Year 1984), Australia: A Cultural History (1988, 1996, new edition in preparation) and A Family Romance: The Deakins at Home (1996) and has published widely on Australian cultural history and biography. In 1997-8 he was the visiting professor of Australian Studies at Harvard University and in 2007 the Monash Visiting Fellow of Australian Studies at the University of Copenhagen. He is currently an adjunct professor at Monash University. In his youth John Rickard worked as an actor and singer.
Industry Reviews

A perceptive, balanced, wide-ranging interpretation of the evolution of modern Australia which is both erudite and well-written.

-- Duncan Bythell

More in Social & Cultural History

The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective - Sara Lodge
100 Diaries That Chronicled World Events - Colin Salter

RRP $44.99

$35.75

21%
OFF
The Voynich Manuscript - Raymond Clemens

RRP $82.95

$60.75

27%
OFF
Soft : A Brief History of Sentimentality - Ferdinand Mount

RRP $42.99

$33.99

21%
OFF
Abandoned Women : Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas - Lucy Frost
Dark Emu : Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture - Bruce Pascoe
Blitzed : Drugs in Nazi Germany - Norman Ohler

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
The Origins of Totalitarianism : Penguin Modern Classics - Hannah Arendt
Tell Me Why : Story of My Life and My Music - Archie Roach

RRP $36.99

$28.75

22%
OFF
The Finest Hotel in Kabul : A People's History of Afghanistan - Lyse Doucet
The Dawn of Everything : A New History of Humanity - David Graeber
Old Vintage Melbourne, 1960-1990 - Chris Macheras

RRP $59.99

$45.75

24%
OFF
How to Move a Zoo : The incredible true story - Kate Simpson

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
Early Photography in Colonial Australia - Elisa deCourcy

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
The Five : The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper - Hallie Rubenhold
Homo Deus : A Brief History of Tomorrow - Yuval Noah Harari

RRP $26.99

$21.75

19%
OFF