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Books > Humanities > History > Australasian & Pacific history > General
British Imperial Air Power examines the air defense of Australia
and New Zealand during the interwar period. It also demonstrates
the difficulty of applying new military aviation technology to the
defense of the global Empire and provides insight into the nature
of the political relationship between the Pacific Dominions and
Britain. Following World War I, both Dominions sought greater
independence in defense and foreign policy. Public aversion to
military matters and the economic dislocation resulting from the
war and later the Depression left little money that could be
provided for their respective air forces. As a result, the Empire's
air services spent the entire interwar period attempting to create
a strategy in the face of these handicaps. In order to survive, the
British Empire's military air forces offered themselves as a
practical and economical third option in the defense of Britain's
global Empire, intending to replace the Royal Navy and British Army
as the traditional pillars of imperial defense.
Shortlised for the Saltire Society Non Fiction Book of the Year
Award Almost every adult and child is familiar with his Treasure
Island, but few know that Robert Louis Stevenson lived out his last
years on an equally remote island, which was squabbled over by
colonial powers much as Captain Flint's treasure was contested by
the mongrel crew of the Hispaniola. In 1890 Stevenson settled in
Upolu, an island in Samoa, after two years sailing round the South
Pacific. He was given a Samoan name and became a fierce critic of
the interference of Germany, Britain and the U.S.A. in Samoan
affairs - a stance that earned him Oscar Wilde's sneers, and
brought him into conflict with the Colonial Office, who regarded
him as a menace and even threatened him with expulsion from the
island. Joseph Farrell's pioneering study of Stevenson's twilight
years stands apart from previous biographies by giving as much
weight to the Samoa and the Samoans - their culture, their manners,
their history - as to the life and work of the man himself. For it
is only by examining the full complexity of Samoa and the political
situation it faced as the nineteenth century gave way to the
twentieth, that Stevenson's lasting and generous contribution to
its cause can be appreciated.
This vivid, multi-dimensional history considers the key cultural,
social, political and economic events of Australia's history.
Deftly weaving these issues into the wider global context, Mark
Peel and Christina Twomey provide an engaging overview of the
country's past, from its first Indigenous people, to the great
migrations of recent centuries, and to those living within the more
anxiously controlled borders of the present day. This engaging
textbook is an ideal resource for undergraduate students and
postgraduate students taking modules or courses on the History of
Australia. It will also appeal to general readers who are
interested in obtaining a thorough overview of the entire history
of Australia, from the earliest times to the present, in one
concise volume.
A renowned biographer compares the lives and times of American
outlaw Billy the Kid and his Australian counterpart Ned Kelly The
oft-told exploits of Billy the Kid and Ned Kelly survive vividly in
the public imaginations of their respective countries, the United
States and Australia. But the outlaws' reputations are so weighted
with legend and myth, the truth of their lives has become obscure.
In this adventure-filled double biography, Robert M. Utley reveals
the true stories and parallel courses of the two notorious
contemporaries who lived by the gun, were executed while still in
their twenties, and remain compelling figures in the folklore of
their homelands. Robert M. Utley draws sharp, insightful portraits
of first Billy, then Ned, and compares their lives and legacies. He
recounts the adventurous exploits of Billy, a fun-loving, expert
sharpshooter who excelled at escape and lived on the run after
indictment for his role in the Lincoln Country War. Bush-raised
Ned, the son of an Irish convict father and Irish mother, was a man
whose outrage against British colonial authority inspired him to
steal cattle and sheep, kill three policemen, and rob banks for the
benefit of impoverished Irish sympathizers. Utley recounts the
exploits of the notorious young men with accuracy and appeal. He
discovers their profound differences, despite their shared fates,
and illuminates the worlds in which they lived on opposite sides of
the globe.
A British colony of fifty souls in the Pacific Ocean, Pitcairn
Island was settled by the Bounty mutineers and nineteen Polynesians
in 1790. In 2004 six Pitcairn men were convicted of numerous
offenses against girls and young women, committed over a thirty
year period, in what appears to have been a culture of sexual abuse
on the island.
This case has raised many questions: what right did the British
government have to initiate these prosecutions? Was it fair to
prosecute the defendants, given that no laws had been published on
the island? Indeed, what, if any, law was there on this island?
This collection of essays explores the many important issues raised
by the case and by the situation of a small, isolated community of
this kind.
It starts by looking at the background to the prosecutions,
considering the dilemma that faced the British government when the
abuse was uncovered, and discussing the ways in which the judges
dealt with the case, as well as exploring the history of the
settlement and how colonial law affects it.
This background paves the way for an exploration of the
philosophical, jurisprudential and ethical issues raised by the
prosecutions: was it legitimate for the UK to intervene, given the
absence of any common community between the UK and the Island? Was
the positivist 'law on paper' approach adopted by the British
government and the courts was appropriate, especially given the
lack of promulgation of the laws under which the men were
prosecuted? Would alternative responses such as payment of
compensation to the female victims and provision of community
support have been preferable? And should universal human rights
claims justify the prosecutions, overriding any allegations of
cultural relativism on the part of the UK?
The epic story of Australia's Aboriginal people, as told through
astonishing archaeological discoveries, ancient oral histories, and
the largest and oldest art galleries on earth
Some 60,000 years ago, a small group of people landed on
Australia's northern coast. They were the first oceanic mariners,
and this great southern land was their new home. Gigantic mammals
roamed the plains and enormous crocodiles, giant snakes, and
goannas nestled in the estuaries and savannahs. This is the epic
story of Australia's Aboriginal people. It is a story of ancient
life on the driest continent on earth through the greatest
environmental changes experienced in human history: ice ages,
extreme drought, and inundating seas. Australia's first inhabitants
were the first people to believe in an afterlife, cremate their
dead, engrave representations of the human face, and depict human
sound and emotion. They created new technologies, designed
ornamentation, engaged in trade, and crafted the earliest documents
of war. Ultimately, they developed a sustainable society based on
shared religious tradition and far-reaching social networks across
the length and breadth of the continent.
The last book in a trilogy of explorations on space and time from a
preeminent scholar, The Boundless Sea is Gary Y. Okihiro's most
innovative yet. Whereas Okihiro's previous books, Island World and
Pineapple Culture, sought to deconstruct islands and continents,
tropical and temperate zones, this book interrogates the assumed
divides between space and time, memoir and history, and the
historian and the writing of history. Okihiro uses himself-from
Okinawan roots, growing up on a sugar plantation in Hawai'i,
researching in Botswana, and teaching in California-to reveal the
historian's craft involving diverse methodologies and subject
matters. Okihiro's imaginative narrative weaves back and forth
through decades and across vast spatial and societal differences,
theorized as historical formations, to critique history's
conventions. Taking its title from a translation of the author's
surname, The Boundless Sea is a deeply personal and reflective
volume that challenges how we think about time and space, notions
of history.
Diese Studie widmet sich der Entwicklung des modernen Sozial- und
Interventionsstaates im Australien des 20. Jahrhunderts. Sie zeigt,
dass der australische Sozialstaat unterschiedliche historische
Einflusse amalgamiert. Die Steuerfinanzierung von Sozialleistungen,
das Versicherungsprinzip und die Sozialsteuer konstituieren bis
heute das interessante "Mischmodell" Australien. Sozialpolitik in
ihrer australischen Definition beschrankte sich nie nur auf
staatliche finanzielle Leistungen an die Burger. Die Loehne wurden
bis in die jungste Vergangenheit im "Wohlfahrtsstaat des
Lohnempfangers" von sogenannten "Schiedsgerichten" und
"-kommissionen" festgesetzt. Dazu kam das System der Schutzzoelle,
die australische Arbeitsplatze sichern und beim Aufbau einer
nationalen Automobilindustrie helfen sollten, die sich am
PKW-Modell "Holden" als dem (Status-)Symbol des sozialen Aufstiegs
festmachen lasst.
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