Research Catalog

Title

Australia. : a cultural history / John Rickard.

Author

Rickard, John, 1935-

Publication

• Clayton, Victoria : Monash University Publishing, [2017]
• ©2017

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 306 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits; 24 cm

Summary

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 unique 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 of 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 among the diverse mix of peoples who are today's Australians. The story begins with the sixty thousand years of the 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 that "we may get the future we deserve."

Subjects

• Australia
• Australia > History
• History
• Australia > Civilization
• Social conditions
• Civilization
• Australia > Social conditions

Genre/Form

History.

Note

• First published 1988.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Part 1. Sources -- Aboriginal Australians -- Immigrants -- Part 2. Interactions : 1788-1901 -- The environment -- Society -- Part 3. The culture : 1901-1939 -- Loyalties -- Political institutions -- Relationships and pursuits -- Part 4. The culture questioned: 1939-2016 -- Dependence 1939-1988 -- Diversity 1939-1988 -- Vision -- The view from the twenty-first century.

Call Number

JFE 18-1535

ISBN

• 9781921867606
• 1921867604

OCLC

870974774

Author

Rickard, John, 1935- author.

Title

Australia. : a cultural history / John Rickard.

Publisher

Clayton, Victoria : Monash University Publishing, [2017]

Copyright Date

©2017

Edition

Third edition.

Type of Content

text

still image

cartographic image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Research Call Number

JFE 18-1535