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Books > History > Australasian & Pacific history
This book contributes to the global turn in First World War studies by exploring Australians' engagements with the conflict across varied boundaries and by situating Australian voices and perspectives within broader, more complex contexts. This diverse and multifaceted collection includes chapters on the composition and contribution of the Australian Imperial Force, the experiences of prisoners of war, nurses and Red Cross workers, the resonances of overseas events for Australians at home, and the cultural legacies of the war through remembrance and representation. The local-global framework provides a fresh lens through which to view Australian connections with the Great War, demonstrating that there is still much to be said about this cataclysmic event in modern history.
This book illuminates Australian soldiers' voices, feelings and thoughts, through exploration of the words and language used during the Great War. It is mostly concerned with slang, but there were also new words that came into Standard English during the war with which Australians became familiar. The book defines and explains these words and terms, provides examples of their usage by Australian soldiers and on the home front that provides insight into the experiences and attitudes of soldiers and civilians, and it draws out some of the themes and features of this language to provide insight into the social and cultural worlds of Australian soldiers and civilians.
In 1938, the anthropologist Norman Tindale gave a classroom of young Aboriginal children a set of crayons and asked them to draw. The children, residents of the government-run Aboriginal station Cummeragunja, mostly drew pictures of aspects of white civilization boats, houses and flowers. What now to make of their artwork? Were the children encouraged or pressured to draw non-Aboriginal scenes, or did they draw freely, appropriating the white culture they now lived within? Did their Aboriginality change the meaning of their art, as they sketched out this ubiquitous colonial imagery? Australian Settler Colonialism and the Cummeragunja Aboriginal Station traces Cummeragunja's history from its establishment in the 1880s to its mass walk-off in 1939 and finally, to the 1960s, when its residents regained greater control over the land. Taking in oral history traditions, the author reveals the competing interests of settler governments, scientific and religious organizations, and nearby settler communities. The nature of these interests has broad and important implications for understanding settler colonial history. This history shows white people set boundaries on Aboriginal behaviour and movement, through direct legislation and the provision of opportunities and acceptance. But Aboriginal people had agency within and, at times, beyond these limits. Aboriginal people appropriated aspects of white culture including the houses, the flowers and the boats that their children drew for Tindale - reshaping them into new tools for Aboriginal society, tools with which to build lives and futures in a changed environment.
Germans in Tonga is the culmination of an eight-year research project in which the author and his team of researchers gathered biographical material on Germans in Tonga. There are four main sources: the British Consul Tonga files, held in the Western Pacific Archives of the University of Auckland Library Special Collections; the Defence Department Enemy Aliens files and Aliens Records held at Archives New Zealand in Wellington; the Archives of the German Foreign Office (Auswartiges Amt) in Berlin; and the Ministry of Justice Archives in Nuku'alofa, Tonga. The volume contains short biographies of over 350 Germans in Tonga born over a 110-year period between 1822 and 1932 and features an introduction by the author on the historical background to the German connection with Tonga.
Through a literary lens, Neoliberalism and Cultural Transition in New Zealand Literature, 1984-2008: Market Fictions examines the ways in which the reprise of market-based economics has impacted the forms of social exchange and cultural life in a settler-colonial context. Jennifer Lawn proposes that postcolonial literary studies needs to take more account of the way in which the new configuration of dominance-increasingly gathered under the umbrella term of neoliberalism-works in concert with, rather than against, assertions of cultural identity on the part of historically subordinated groups. The pre-eminence of new right economics over the past three decades has raised a conundrum for writers on the left: while neoliberalism has tended to undermine collective social action, it has also fostered expressions of identity in the form of "cultural capital" which minority communities can exploit for economic gain. Neoliberalism and Cultural Transition in New Zealand Literature, 1984-2008 advocates for reading practices that balance the appeals of culture against the structuring forces of social class and the commodification of identity, while not losing sight of the specific aesthetic qualities of literary fiction. Jennifer Lawn demonstrates the value of this approach in a wide-ranging account of New Zealand literature. Movements towards decolonization in a bicultural society are read within the context of a marginal post-industrial economy that was, in many ways, a test case for radical free market reforms. Through a study of politically-engaged writing across a range of genres by both Maori and non-Maori authors, the New Zealand experience shows in high relief the twinned dynamics of a decline in the ideal of social egalitarianism and the corresponding rise of the idea of culture as a transformative force in economic and civic life, tending ultimately to blur the distinction between these spheres altogether. This work includes well-recognized authors such as Alan Duff, Patricia Grace, Witi Ihimaera, Eleanor Catton and Maurice Gee, but also introduces a number of non-canonical or emergent writers whose work is discussed in detail for the first time in this volume. The result is a distinctive literary history of a turbulent period of social and economic change.
The Australian Army from Whitlam to Howard is the first critical examination of Australia's post-Vietnam military operations, spanning the 35 years between the election of Gough Whitlam and the defeat of John Howard. John Blaxland explores the 'casualty cringe' felt by political leaders following the war and how this impacted subsequent operations. He contends that the Australian Army's rehabilitation involved common individual and collective training and reaffirmation of the Army's regimental and corps identities. He shows how the Army regained its confidence to play leading roles in East Timor, Bougainville and the Solomon Islands, and to contribute to combat operations further afield. At a time when the Australian Army's future strategic role are the subject of much debate, and as the 'Asian Century' gathers pace and commitment in Afghanistan draws to an end, this work is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the modern context of Australia's military land force.
The Chinese Hsinhai Revolution explores and explains for the first time the important role of G. E. Morrison in great power diplomacy in China from the end of the Russo-Japanese War to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty. The work is based on a wide range of multinational scholarly sources and in order to develop the context in which Morrison carried out his personal diplomacy and to delineate the many-sided story into which Morrison has to be placed, Woodhouse has in addition to mining the very rich Morrison collection, drawn upon British, Japanese and American personal and official materials.
Australians have been making pilgrimages to the battlefields and cemeteries of World War Two since the 1940s, from the jungles of New Guinea and South-East Asia to the mountains of Greece and the deserts of North Africa. They travel in search of the stories of lost loved ones, to mourn the dead and to come to grips with the past. With characteristic empathy, Bruce Scates charts the history of pilgrimages to Crete, Kokoda, Sandakan and Hellfire Pass. He explores the emotional resonance that these sites have for those who served and those who remember. Based on surveys, interviews, extensive fieldwork and archival research, Anzac Journeys offers insights into the culture of loss and commemoration and the hunger for meaning so pivotal to the experience of pilgrimage. Richly illustrated with full-colour maps and photographs from the 1940s to today, Anzac Journeys makes an important and moving contribution to Australian military history.
Company towns are often portrayed as powerless communities, fundamentally dependent on the outside influence of global capital. Neil White challenges this interpretation by exploring how these communities were altered at the local level through human agency, missteps, and chance. Far from being homogeneous, these company towns are shown to be unique communities with equally unique histories.Company Towns provides a multi-layered, international comparison between the development of two settlements--the mining community of Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia, and the mill town of Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada. White pinpoints crucial differences between the towns' experiences by contrasting each region's histories from various perspectives--business, urban, labour, civic, and socio-cultural. Company Towns also makes use of a sizable collection of previously neglected oral history sources and town records, providing an illuminating portrait of divergence that defies efforts to impose structure on the company town phenomenon.
Baby booms have a long history. In 1870, colonial Melbourne was 'perspiring juvenile humanity' with an astonishing 42 per cent of the city's inhabitants aged 14 and under - a demographic anomaly resulting from the gold rushes of the 1850s. Within this context, Simon Sleight enters the heated debate concerning the future prospects of 'Young Australia' and the place of the colonial child within the incipient Australian nation. Looking beyond those institutional sites so often assessed by historians of childhood, he ranges across the outdoor city to chart the relationship between a discourse about youth, youthful experience and the shaping of new urban spaces. Play, street work, consumerism, courtship, gang-related activities and public parades are examined using a plethora of historical sources to reveal a hitherto hidden layer of city life. Capturing the voices of young people as well as those of their parents, Sleight alerts us to the ways in which young people shaped the emergent metropolis by appropriating space and attempting to impress upon the city their own desires. Here a dynamic youth culture flourished well before the discovery of the 'teenager' in the mid-twentieth century; here young people and the city grew up together.
In 1945 a joint committee of the US Senate and House of Representatives was appointed to investigate and hear testimony from a variety of military and civilian leaders about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Brought together here is a cross-section of the relevant testimony from the Congressional committee's 39-volume report. Witnesses recount events leading up to the war, American espionage efforts, the failure of radar, the penetration of the Japanese diplomatic codes, and the performance of the military.
The Napoleonic era was a period of major transition. During this time, the explorer Nicolas Baudin made a voyage to Australia and made an unscheduled stop in Sydney where he restructured the expedition. Starbuck examines Baudin's captainship, life on board the ship, the details of the stop in Port Jackson, and the 'new voyage' that followed.
In this book, Philip Payton provides a vivid insight into the experiences of regional Australia during the Great War of 1914-18. Alighting upon 'old Kio', the copper-mining communities of South Australia's northern Yorke Peninsula, he describes the relationship between the 'homefront' and the 'battlefront' half-a-world away. He draws an intimate portrait of Australia at war, from the lives (and deaths) of local soldiers-all volunteers-in the trenches far from home to the myriad reactions and activities of those in a community struggling to grasp the enormity of the situation in which it found itself. The book shows how community cohesion was fractured by increasing tensions and divisions, not least over the Conscription debate, as the war dragged on. And it shows how those volunteer soldiers fared in each of the great battles in which the Australians participated-from Gallipoli to the Western Front and the heady days of 1918.
'Of all the books about the ground war in the Pacific, (With the Old Breed) is the closest to a masterpiece.' - The New York Review of Books 'One of the most arresting documents in war literature.' - John Keegan, in The Second World War E.B. Sledge's memoir of his experience fighting in the South Pacific during World War II is powerful because of its honesty and compassion. With the Old Breed presents a stirring, personal account of the bravery of the Marines in the battles at Peleliu and Okinawa. Eugene Bondurant Sledge 'Sledgehammer' joined the Marines the year after the bombing of Pearl Harbour and from 1943 to 1946 endured the events recorded in this book. Sledge enlisted out of patriotism and youthful courage but once he landed on the beach at Peleliu, it was purely a struggle for survival. Based on the notes he kept on slips of paper tucked secretly away in his New Testament, he simply and directly recalls those long months, mincing no words and sparing no pain. The reality of battle meant unbearable heat, deafening gunfire, unimaginable brutality and, above all, constant fear. Sledge still has nightmares about 'the bloody, muddy month of May on Okinawa.' He also tellingly reveals the bonds of friendship formed that will never be severed. Sledge's account of other marines, even complete strangers, sets him apart as a memoirist of war. Read as sobering history or as high adventure, this is a moving chronicle of action and courage. About the Author E. B. Sledge was born and grew up in Mobile, Alabama. His father, a physician, taught him to hunt and to describe his surroundings. Sledge enlisted in the US Marine Corps and was sent to the Pacific Theatre. He fought at Peleliu and Okinawa where some of the fiercest battles of WWII took place. Although he survived it took him years to recover from the psychological wounds from that experience. He has since pursued his studies in all manner of subjects, earning a PhD in Zoology at the University of Florida.
This book considers how Samoans embraced and reshaped the English game of cricket, recasting it as a distinctively Samoan pastime, kirikiti. Starting with cricket's introduction to the islands in 1879, it uses both cricket and kirikiti to trace six decades of contest between and within the categories of 'colonisers' and 'colonised.' How and why did Samoans adapt and appropriate the imperial game? How did officials, missionaries, colonists, soldiers and those with mixed foreign and Samoan heritage understand and respond to the real and symbolic challenges kirikiti presented? And how did Samoans use both games to navigate foreign colonialism(s)? By investigating these questions, Benjamin Sacks suggests alternative frameworks for conceptualising sporting transfer and adoption, and advances understandings of how power, politics and identity were manifested through sport, in Samoa and across the globe.
Michael Davitt (1846-1906) was a prominent and influential figure in Irish politics in the nineteenth century. A fervent supporter of Irish independence, he was imprisoned more than once in England, but later became a Member of Parliament for Irish constituencies. In this book, first published in 1898, Davitt records a journey of seven months through the Australasian colonies, noting his impressions of the areas he passed through and discussing the political and social norms across the different regions. He examines land laws in many of the areas and describes the different industries then emerging. He also reports on the treatment of aborigines, ranging from 'exterminating the aborigines' in Tasmania to the 'efforts to protect them' in Western Australia, and finally focuses on prisons and prisoner welfare across the colonies he visited. This book offers a wealth of information on many aspects of nineteenth-century Australasia.
This project documents the rich source material in European and North American repositories relating to the history of countries formerly under colonial rule. The manuscript and document holdings of public and private archives, libraries, museums and other institutions referred to in the guide cover all aspects of history. The primary emphasis is on political, diplomatic, commercial and military history, but there is good coverage of cultural history - especially in the reports and correspondence of explorers and travellers in missionary archives. Each series, of which this is the third, is arranged by country; sources within national volumes are described by repositories and archival groups.
This book traces the history of working people who helped established the foundation of the American empire in the Pacific from its origins after the American Revolution to its coming of age in the 1840s and 1850s. Beginning with the expeditions of the Columbia and the Lady Washington, Lampe argues that the early American Pacific can best be considered through the interaction of four major locations, connected through the networks of trade: the merchant ship, the Northwest Coast, Honolulu, and Canton (Guangzhou). In each of these locations, the labors of a diverse population of working people was harnessed in the critical labors of empire building, including the transportation of goods. The central question that the consideration of working people in the Pacific economy during this period is, Lampe argues, the role of power applied on these laborers by an international capitalist class, emerging alongside the Pacific commercial empires. Lampe also finds that this power was not uncontested and emerged in response to the activities of labor. Working people, on the ship and in the port cities, found ways to secure their piece of the profitable trade, often through illicit means.
A Decent Provision is a narrative history of how and why Australia built a distinctive welfare regime in the period from the 1870s to 1949. At the beginning of this period, the Australian colonies were belligerently insisting they must not have a Poor Law, yet had reproduced many of the systems of charitable provision in Britain. By the start of the twentieth century, a combination of extended suffrage, basic wage regulation and the aged pension had led to a reputation as a 'social laboratory'. And yet half a century later, Australia was a 'welfare laggard' and the Labor Party's welfare state of the mid-1940s was a relatively modest and parsimonious construction. Models of welfare based on social insurance had been vigorously rejected, and the Australian system continued on a path of highly residual, targeted welfare payments. The book explains this curious and halting trajectory, showing how choices made in earlier decades constrained what could be done, and what could be imagined. Based on extensive new research from a variety of primary sources it makes a significant contribution to general historical debates, as well as to the field of comparative social policy.
Using Australian history as a case study, this collection explores the ways national identities still resonate in historical scholarship and reexamines key moments in Australian history through a transnational lens, raising important questions about the unique context of Australia's national narrative. The book examines the tension between national and transnational perspectives, attempting to internationalize the often parochial nation-based narratives that characterize national history. Moving from the local and personal to the global, encompassing comparative and international research and drawing on the experiences of researchers working across nations and communities, this collection brings together diverging national and transnational approaches and asks several critical research questions: What is transnational history? How do new transnational readings of the past challenge conventional national narratives and approaches? What are implications of transnational and international approaches on Australian history? What possibilities do they bring to the discipline? What are their limitations? And finally, how do we understand the nation in this transnational moment?
On the 25th August 1895, Ernest Alfred Hall was born into a pioneering Australian family that lived on a 313-acre property called 'Cloverdale' near the hamlet of Beech Forest, south of the Otway Ranges, some 200 kilometres south west of Melbourne, Victoria. As a child, it seemed he would be destined for the life of a farmer in a country that was just realising its independence through Federation, yet his path was to be diverted by the cataclysmic events that befell Europe and the British Empire. So it was, that one month short of his 20th birthday, Ernest caught the train to Melbourne and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. At only 5' 3" he was never going to be the biggest soldier in the army, but as his father said to him, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, son, but the size of the fight in the dog." Like so many, Ernest Hall embarked for the war to end all wars. Unlike so many, his letters and records survived. This is his story.
Stuart Macintyre, one of Australia's most highly regarded historians, revisits A Concise History of Australia to provoke readers to reconsider Australia's past and its relationship to the present. Integrating new scholarship with the historical record, the fifth edition of A Concise History of Australia brings together the long narrative of Australia's First Nations' peoples; the arrival of Europeans and the era of colonies, convicts, gold and free settlers; the foundation of a nation state; and the social, cultural, political and economic developments that created a modern Australia. As we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, Macintyre's Australia remains one of achievements and failures. So too the future possibilities are deeply rooted in the country's past endeavours. A Concise History of Australia is an invitation to examine this past.
Papua New Guinea has experienced a remarkably rapid transition from scattered primitive societies to a modern unified nation. The dictionary covers major economic, social, political, and cultural developments, basic geographic information and biographies. With maps. |
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