The 1950s' undeniable prosperity has become synonymous with conservatism, and inertia seen as its hallmark. This book offers a fresh and challenging interpretation of the 1950s in Australia. Nicholas Brown presents the decade as a time of great change, brought about by affluence. Society became increasingly complex, mass consumption reached new heights and Australia's role in the world and the region was re-cast. The book looks at the ways in which those overseeing society responded to these post-war changes; in short, how they governed prosperity. A history of ideas as well as cultural, intellectual and institutional history, Governing Prosperity is a major reassessment of the 1950s. It will be particularly important for its analysis of the significance of the decade in the development of Australian society.

This book reclaims Cultural Liberalism as an important part of Australian intellectual heritage. Arguing that the tradition is central to the Australian experience of modernity, Gregory Melleuish traces the impact of cultural liberalism from its emergence around the time of Federation to its demise during the 1960s. Part collective biography, part intellectual and cultural history, the book describes the development of cultural liberalism, founded on rationalism and humanism, by university-educated intellectuals. Dr Melleuish argues that a religious and spiritual dimension was also central to the tradition. He draws attention to the intellectual similarities of thinkers not usually grouped together, and also considers those who inherited the tradition but repudiated it. This provocative book will make an important contribution to debates about culture, identity and citizenship in post-modern Australia.

This broad-ranging 1995 book provides a comprehensive account of the development of Australia's colonial economy before the gold rushes. Noel Butlin's analysis of the developing economy includes background discussion of eighteenth-century British social, economic, and military history and a detailed demographic analysis of the Australian population over a period of sixty years. He goes on to explore the role of private investment in the economy and the way in which dependence on the British public purse was replaced by dependence on private British capital inflow. A key focus of the book is the extent to which the Australian economy was independent or externally driven, that is, the level of synergism between Australia and Britain. Within this framework, Noel Butlin discusses the central issues of human capital and funding and their impact on the formation of the Australian economy. Forming a Colonial Economy does for the period to the 1840s what Noel Butlin's previous landmark economic histories have done for Australia from the 1860s to the 1890s. It is an ambitious and imaginative book that marks the culmination of a life's work.

Tautai is the story of a man who came from the edge of a mighty empire and then challenged it at its very heart. This biography of Ta'isi O. F. Nelson chronicles the life of a man described as the "archenemy" of New Zealand and its greater whole, the British Empire. He was Samoa's richest man who used his wealth and unique international access to further the Samoan cause and was financially ruined in the process. In the aftermath of the hyper-violence of the First World War, Ta'isi embraced nonviolent resistance as a means to combat a colonial surge in the Pacific that gripped his country for nearly two decades. This surge was manned by heroes of New Zealand's war campaign, who attempted to hold the line against the groundswell of challenges to the imperial order in the former German colony of Samoa that became a League of Nations mandate in 1921. Stillborn Samoan hopes for greater freedoms under this system precipitated a crisis of empire. It led Ta'isi on global journeys in search of justice taking him to Geneva, the League of Nations headquarters, and into courtrooms in Samoa, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Ta'isi ran a global campaign of letter writing, petitions, and a newspaper to get his people's plight heard. For his efforts he was imprisoned and exiled not once but twice from his homeland of Samoa. Using private papers and interviews, O'Brien tells a deeply compelling account of Ta'isi's life lived through turbulent decades. By following Ta'isi's story readers also learn a history of Samoa's Mau movement that attracted international attention. The author's care for detail provides a nuanced interpretation of its history and Ta'isi's role in the broader context of world history. The first biography of Ta'isi O. F. Nelson, Tautai is a powerful and passionate story that is both personal and one that encircles the globe. It touches on shared histories and causes that have animated and enraged populations across the world throughout the twentieth century to the present day.

It is a common belief that Australians take little interest in their appearance. Yet from the first white settlement, clothing was of crucial importance to Australians. It was central to the ways class and status were negotiated and equally significant for marking out sexual differences. Dress was implicated in definitions of morality, in the relationship between Europeans and Aboriginal people, and between convict and free. This 1994 book, a history of the cultural practices of dress rather than an account of fashion, reveals the broader historical and cultural implications of clothes in Australia for the first time. It shows that the colonies did not always slavishly follow British fashion, and also looks at the impact of the gold field experience on Australian dress, the nature of local manufacturing and retail outlets, and the way in which rural men and their bush dress, rather than women's dress, became closely related to Australian identity.

This book examines the relationship of the Australian colonies with Britain and Empire in the late nineteenth century, and looks at the first murmurings of Australian nationalism. It is the first detailed study of the formative period 1880-1900. The book argues that many of the features of the British Empire at this time can be seen in the British-Australian connection. Luke Trainor shows that the interests of British imperialism were greatly advanced in Australia in the 1880s because of the increased involvement of British capital in Australia. And while British imperialism tolerated some Australian nationalism, this nationalism was highly masculine in character, was based on dispossession of the Aborigines and encouraged sub-imperialism in the Pacific. As we approach the centenary of the Australian Constitution and debate about an Australian republic becomes more heated, this book is a timely re-examination of the colonial character of Australia's federation and Australia's incorporation into an imperial framework.

This 1994 book is a study of an important aspect of Pacific history and political economy, the mining of gold and the development of an indigenous labour force in Fiji from 1930 to 1970. The book focuses on the town of Vatukoula, which is in the north-west of Fiji's largest island Viti Levu and is the country's only company mining town. Labour and Gold in Fiji examines the mechanics of the labour market but also focuses on the ordinary working lives, experiences and struggles of the mining community. By examining the impact of gold mining in Fiji, the author extracts a number of important themes significant to Fijian social and economic history and the Third World in general. She traces the making and undoing of working class indigenous mine labour in Fiji, discussing various aspects of economic coercion as well as the social consequences of Fijian incorporation into the colonial labour market.

This broad-ranging 1995 book provides a comprehensive account of the development of Australia's colonial economy before the gold rushes. Noel Butlin's analysis of the developing economy includes background discussion of eighteenth-century British social, economic, and military history and a detailed demographic analysis of the Australian population over a period of sixty years. He goes on to explore the role of private investment in the economy and the way in which dependence on the British public purse was replaced by dependence on private British capital inflow. A key focus of the book is the extent to which the Australian economy was independent or externally driven, that is, the level of synergism between Australia and Britain. Within this framework, Noel Butlin discusses the central issues of human capital and funding and their impact on the formation of the Australian economy. Forming a Colonial Economy does for the period to the 1840s what Noel Butlin's previous landmark economic histories have done for Australia from the 1860s to the 1890s. It is an ambitious and imaginative book that marks the culmination of a life's work.

It is a common belief that Australians take little interest in their appearance. Yet from the first white settlement, clothing was of crucial importance to Australians. It was central to the ways class and status were negotiated and equally significant for marking out sexual differences. Dress was implicated in definitions of morality, in the relationship between Europeans and Aboriginal people, and between convict and free. This 1994 book, a history of the cultural practices of dress rather than an account of fashion, reveals the broader historical and cultural implications of clothes in Australia for the first time. It shows that the colonies did not always slavishly follow British fashion, and also looks at the impact of the gold field experience on Australian dress, the nature of local manufacturing and retail outlets, and the way in which rural men and their bush dress, rather than women's dress, became closely related to Australian identity.

Cattle has been big business in Australia for well over a century and earns substantial export dollars. Yet the contribution that Aboriginal people have made to this key sector of the Australian economy has not been widely recognised. This book uncovers the central role of Aboriginal labour in the Queensland cattle industry. It looks at a broad period, from Aboriginal land use at the time of first contact, resistance to white settlers and rapid absorption of Aboriginal people into the pastoral economy. The book also considers the impact of the introduction of equal pay rates in the 1970s and land management in the 1990s. Dawn May shows that the use of Aboriginal labour was a complex process involving a high degree of state intervention. Her book is an important economic and social history of the cattle industry in Queensland, but the pressing issue of native title makes the book highly relevant throughout post-Mabo Australia.

The material world of European settlement in Australia has been uncovered not only by historians but by the work of archaeologists as well. These archaeological enquiries have revealed new and direct pictures of the public and private lives of Australians at home and at work. This book, now in paperback, presents the insights gained from such investigations and makes them available to a wide audience. Historical archaeology is broad ranging and this book discusses the first European towns including those settlements that failed, the archaeology of convicts and archaeological evidence of the agricultural, maritime, industrial and manufacturing activities of early Australia. Graham Connah also examines the evidence of earliest external contact, contact between Europeans and Aboriginal people and looks at the diverse cultural forms of modern Australia. The book also suggests ways people can become involved in studying and protecting Australia's historical heritage.

Australia has a strong tradition of labour historiography, which until recently has been focused on the institutions of the labour movement: trade unions and labour parties. This book shifts the focus back to the workplace and looks at how and why the nature of work changed during the period from the late nineteenth century to World War II. The book focuses on three industries in the state of Victoria: clothing, bootmaking, and printing. Concerned with the complex relationship between economic and technological change, the nature of sexual division in the workforce, and the role of union, employer and state activists, it carefully traces the impact of all of these factors on wage levels for men and women. The treatment of these themes touches on wide historical issues, as we follow the fortunes of Victorian manufacturing, and consider the political strategies of the trade unions of the time and the state's response to them. The study is also an important piece of social history, evoking the nature of work for many Australians of the period.

The myth of Anzac has been one of Australia's most enduring. The belief in the superior fighting qualities of Australia's soldiers in the First World War is part of the national consciousness, and the much touted 'special' relationship between Britain and Australia during the war accepted as fact. This provocative and wide-ranging book is a reassessment of Australia's role in World War I and its relations - military, economic, political and psychological - with Britain. Eric Andrews shows that it suited all parties to propagate the myth of Anzac for their own purposes. It was widely assumed that Britain and Australia were countries with similar interests united by Empire. The book considers this assumption in the light of Australia's actual military experience in the War and finds that it was false. It also discusses the impact of the War on the Australian attitude to Empire. The book is a fresh - and at times controversial - consideration of issues of abiding interest and significance.

War has shaped Australian society profoundly. When we commemorate the sacrifices of the Anzacs, we rightly celebrate their bravery, but we do not always acknowledge the complex aftermath of combat.In The Cost of War, Stephen Garton traces the experiences of Australia's veterans, and asks what we can learn from their stories. He considers the long-term effects of war on returned servicemen and women, on their families and communities, and on Australian public life. He describes attempts to respond to the physical and psychological wounds of combat, from the first victims of shellshock during WWI to more recent understandings of post-traumatic stress disorder. And he examines the political and social repercussions of war, including debates over how we should commemorate conflict and how society should respond to the needs of veterans.When the first edition of The Cost of War appeared in 1996, it offered a ground-breaking new perspective on the Anzac experience. In this new edition, Garton again makes a compelling case for a more nuanced understanding of the individual and collective costs of war.

Ironically, the first civil case to be heard in Australia occurred at the behest of two convicts under sentence. Of course, convicts had first-hand experience of criminal law, but all the settlers were part of a culture which emphasised the rule of law as the guarantee of its fundamental political value, British liberty. This book, written by a lawyer and unique for its perspective based in both legal and social history, illuminates the important role played by the concept of the rule of law in the transformation of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free society. Dr Neal lucidly outlines the interaction between law and politics in early New South Wales and shows that because there were no official political structures, the courts served as a de facto parliament and a means of political expression.

No area of social welfare in Australia has seen as much conflict as health policy. Clashes have involved the medical profession, bureaucrats, friendly societies and political parties, often to the detriment of the patient. This 1991 book provides background to the current debate by studying the political conflict over health policy in Australia from 1910-60. It looks at both state and national levels for the origins of the system of publicly subsidized private practice epitomized in the fee-for-service scheme. The different currents within state policy are analysed along with the various obstructions to the development of the national health insurance policy. The role of the British Medical Association, which in its indigenous form continues to have a hostile relationship with the government because of its determination to maintain its independence and fee-for-service practices, is closely examined. The Price of Health will be of particular interest to health policy makers.

The Origins of Australia's Capital Cities is a comprehensive survey, well illustrated with maps and plans, which aims to answer two questions. First, why Australia's eight capital cities are situated where they are, and second, how they were established. Pairs of chapters on each of the State capitals - Sydney, Hobart, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane - are accompanied by studies of Canberra as the federal capital and Darwin as a territorial capital. A capital is the administrative centre of a political entity, and in Australia, unlike many overseas countries, a uniquely high proportion of the population resides in the capitals. Companion chapters examine the causes of initial European settlement in each area, and reasons for the actual establishment of each capital city. Attention is given to such topics as planning and layout, the basis of growth, potential rivals, the social nature of the cities and the nature of their spread. While there have been no other volume covering all the capitals to seek answers to the same basic questions. This will therefore be an invaluable source book, and provide a stimulus to further enquiry in the social history of Australia. An introduction by the editor pulls together the general strands which link the chapters, and highlights the ways in which the Australian experience contrasts with the urban experience overseas.

Pitcairn, a tiny Pacific island that was refuge to the mutineers of HMAV Bounty and home to their descendants, later became the stage on which one imposter played out his influential vision for British control over the nineteenth-century Pacific Ocean. Joshua W. Hill arrived on Pitcairn in 1832 and began his fraudulent half-decade rule that has, until now, been swept aside as an idiosyncratic moment in the larger saga of Fletcher Christian's mutiny against Captain Bligh, and the mutineers' unlikely settlement of Pitcairn. Here, Hill is shown instead as someone alert to the full scope and power of the British Empire, to the geopolitics of international imperial competition, to the ins and outs of naval command, the vicissitudes of court politics, and, as such, to Pitcairn's symbolic power for the British Empire more broadly.

Fiji is a country whose recent political instability can be directly traced to its distinctive colonial and post-colonial experience. For one particular region of Fiji the authors examine the environmental, social and economic aspects of this experience, at scales ranging from national and regional to island, village and household. Discussions in Third World geography, regional economics and development planning have been full of rhetoric about 'underdevelopment', 'centre-periphery relations' and 'dependency', but seldom are the actual processes which give rise to these phenomena examined in detail. In this book the authors explore in depth the interrelations between the island landscape, the cultural geography of the islanders and the intrusive values and opportunities of the market economy. Some important lessons are to be learnt from the gap between what might be predicted from abstract theories of development and what is actually happening in the real world of politicians, planners, farmers and fishermen.

How, asks John Terrell in this richly illustrated and original book, can we best account for the remarkable diversity of the Pacific Islanders in biology, language, and custom? Traditionally scholars have recognized a simple racial division between Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians, Australians, and South-east Asians: peoples allegedly differing in physical appearance, temperament, achievements, and perhaps even intelligence. Terrell shows that such simple divisions do not fit the known facts and provide little more than a crude, static picture of human diversity.

Based on five decades of research and observation, a haunting and unsparing look at the melting ice caps, and what their disappearance will mean. Peter Wadhams has been studying ice first-hand since 1970, completing 50 trips to the world's poles and observing for himself the changes over the course of nearly five decades. His conclusions are stark: the ice caps are melting. Following the hottest summer on record, sea ice in September 2016 was the thinnest in recorded history. There is now the probability that within a few years the North Pole will be ice-free for the first time in 10,000 years, entering what some call the "Artic death spiral." As sea ice, as well as land ice on Greenland and Antarctica, continues to melt, the rise in sea levels will devastate coastal communities across the world. The collapse of summer ice in the Artic will release large amounts of methane currently trapped by offshore permafrost. Methane has twenty-three times greater greenhouse warming effect per molecule than CO2; an ice-free arctic summer will therefore have an albedo effect nearly equivalent to that of the last thirty years. A sobering but urgent and engaging book, A Farewell to Ice shows us ice's role on our planet, its history, and the true dimensions of the current global crisis, offering readers concrete advice about what they can do, and what must be done.