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Books > History > Australasian & Pacific history > General
Although North America and Australasia occupy opposite ends of the earth, they have never been that far from each other conceptually. The United States and Australia both began as British colonies and mutual entanglements continue today, when contemporary cultures of globalization have brought them more closely into juxtaposition. Taking this transpacific kinship as his focus, Paul Giles presents a sweeping study that spans two continents and over three hundred years of literary history to consider the impact of Australia and New Zealand on the formation of U.S. literature. Early American writers such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Joel Barlow and Charles Brockden Brown found the idea of antipodes to be a creative resource, but also an alarming reminder of Great Britain's increasing sway in the Pacific. The southern seas served as inspiration for narratives by Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville. For African Americans such as Harriet Jacobs, Australia represented a haven from slavery during the gold rush era, while for E.D.E.N. Southworth its convict legacy offered an alternative perspective on the British class system. In the 1890s, Henry Adams and Mark Twain both came to Australasia to address questions of imperial rivalry and aesthetic topsy-turvyness. The second half of this study considers how Australia's political unification through Federation in 1901 significantly altered its relationship to the United States. New modes of transport and communication drew American visitors, including novelist Jack London. At the same time, Americans associated Australia and New Zealand with various kinds of utopian social reform, particularly in relation to gender politics, a theme Giles explores in William Dean Howells, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Miles Franklin. He also considers how American modernism in New York was inflected by the Australasian perspectives of Lola Ridge and Christina Stead, and how Australian modernism was in turn shaped by American styles of iconoclasm. After World War II, Giles examines how the poetry of Karl Shapiro, Louis Simpson, Yusef Komunyakaa, and others was influenced by their direct experience of Australia. He then shifts to post-1945 fiction, where the focus extends from Irish-American cultural politics (Raymond Chandler, Thomas Keneally) to the paradoxes of exile (Shirley Hazzard, Peter Carey) and the structural inversions of postmodernism and posthumanism (Salman Rushdie, Donna Haraway). Ranging from figures like John Ledyard to John Ashbery, from Emily Dickinson to Patricia Piccinini and J. M. Coetzee, Antipodean America is a truly epic work of transnational literary history.
In 1867, Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria's second son, commissioned the Galatea for a voyage around the world which would include the first royal visit to Australia. Stopping along the way in Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town, Alfred was received with great ceremony at each port of call. These visits provided the ship's chaplain John Milner (1822 97) and the artist Oswald Brierly (1817 94) with ample material for this chronicle, published in 1869, which gives background details of each region alongside scenes from the tour, enhanced by illustrations based on Brierly's sketches. The authors drew on various recollections and writings, including a letter from Alfred to his brother describing an elephant hunt in South Africa. The tour was abruptly curtailed in Sydney when a Fenian sympathiser attempted to assassinate the prince, an act which boosted support for the British royal family."
Designed as an 'ideal city' and emblem of the nation, Canberra has long been a source of ambivalence for many Australians. In this charming and concise book, Nicholas Brown challenges these ideas and looks beyond the cliches to illuminate the unique, layered and often colourful history of Australia's capital. Brown covers Canberra's selection as the site of the national capital, the turbulent path of Walter Burley Griffin's plan for the city, and the many phases of its construction. He surveys citizens' diverse experiences of the city, the impact of the Second World War on Canberra's growth, and explores the city's political history with insight and wit. A History of Canberra is informed by the interplay of three themes central to Canberra's identity: government, community and environment. Canberra's distinctive social and cultural history as a centre for the public service and national institutions is vividly rendered."
On 28th April 1789 a small and unremarkable merchant vessel became one of the most famous ships in maritime history. HMS Bounty was under the command of 34-year-old Lieutenant William Bligh, an inexperienced commander who lacked the respect of a crew attracted to the promise of an easy life in a Tahitian paradise. Fletcher Christian led half the crew in mutiny against Bligh and after overpowering all resistance, they cast their deposed captain adrift along with those still loyal to him. Luckily for Bligh, his skills as a navigator were better than his skills as a captain and he managed to sail the 23ft boat 3,618 nautical miles to Timor in the Dutch East Indies with no chart or compass, and only a quadrant and a pocket watch for navigation. On returning to England he reported what had happened, and the Royal Navy hunted down and captured most of the mutineers. However, this is only half the story - William Bligh's version. The captured mutineers went on trial and their testimonies give a much less heroic portrait of their former captain, accusing him of unduly harsh treatment. Fletcher Christian's older brother Edward, a judge, oversaw a more balanced account of the mutiny. Of the mutineers who returned to England, only three were hanged; four were acquitted and three pardoned. This book gives the fullest version of the mutiny, allowing Bligh's account to sit alongside those of his detractors. The discrepancies are fascinating, and allow us to make up our own minds about this infamous mutiny. Also includes an exclusive Foreword by former World Sailor of the Year Pete Goss, who offers a unique perspective on the trials and tribulations of the Bounty's crew, whether castaway or mutineer.
The Land Is Our History tells the story of indigenous legal activism at a critical political and cultural juncture in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In the late 1960s, indigenous activists protested assimilation policies and the usurpation of their lands as a new mining boom took off, radically threatening their collective identities. Often excluded from legal recourse in the past, indigenous leaders took their claims to court with remarkable results. For the first time, their distinctive histories were admitted as evidence of their rights. Miranda Johnson examines how indigenous peoples advocated for themselves in courts and commissions of inquiry between the early 1970s to the mid-1990s, chronicling an extraordinary and overlooked history in which virtually disenfranchised peoples forced powerful settler democracies to reckon with their demands. Based on extensive archival research and interviews with leading participants, The Land Is Our History brings to the fore complex and rich discussions among activists, lawyers, anthropologists, judges, and others in the context of legal cases in far-flung communities dealing with rights, history, and identity. The effects of these debates were unexpectedly wide-ranging. By asserting that they were the first peoples of the land, indigenous leaders compelled the powerful settler states that surrounded them to negotiate their rights and status. Fracturing national myths and making new stories of origin necessary, indigenous peoples' claims challenged settler societies to rethink their sense of belonging.
This book explores the historical and archaeological evidence of the relationships between a coastal community and the shipwrecks that have occurred along the southern Australian shoreline over the last 160 years. It moves beyond a focus on shipwrecks as events and shows the short and long term economic, social and symbolic significance of wrecks and strandings to the people on the shoreline. This volume draws on extensive oral histories, documentary and archaeological research to examine the tensions within the community, negotiating its way between its roles as shipwreck saviours and salvors.
Colonial Voices explores the role of language in the greater 'civilising' project of the British Empire through the dissemination and reception of, and challenge to, British English in Australia during the period from the 1840s to the 1940s. This was a period in which the art of oratory, eloquence and elocution was of great importance in the empire and Joy Damousi offers an innovative study of the relationship between language and empire. She shows the ways in which this relationship moved from dependency to independence and how, during that transition, definitions of the meaning and place of oratory, eloquence and elocution shifted. Her findings reveal the central role of voice and pronunciation in informing and defining both individual and collective identity, as well as wider cultural views of class, race, nation and gender. The result is a pioneering contribution to cultural history and the history of English within the British Empire.
Australia is rarely considered to have been a part of the great political changes that swept the world in the 1960s: the struggles of the American civil rights movement, student revolts in Europe, guerrilla struggles across the Third World and demands for women's and gay liberation. This book tells the story of how Australian activists from a diversity of movements read about, borrowed from, physically encountered and critiqued overseas manifestations of these rebellions, as well as locating the impact of radical visitors to the nation. It situates Australian protest and reform movements within a properly global - and particularly Asian - context, where Australian protestors sought answers, utopias and allies. Dramatically broadens our understanding of Australian protest movements, this book presents them not only as manifestations of local issues and causes but as fundamentally tied to ideas, developments and personalities overseas, particularly to socialist states and struggles in near neighbours like Vietnam, Malaysia and China.'Jon Piccini is Research and Teaching Fellow at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. His research interests include the history of human rights and social histories of international student migration.'
Sydney, famed for its setting and natural beauty, has fascinated from the day it was conceived as an end-of-the-world repository for British felons, to its current status as one of the world's most appealing cities. This book recounts, and celebrates, the central role food has played in shaping the city's development from the time of first human settlement to the sophisticated, open, and cosmopolitan metropolis it is today. The reader will learn of the Sydney region's unique natural resources and come to appreciate how these shaped food habits through its pre-history and early European settlement; how its subsequent waves of immigrants enriched its food scene; its love-hate relationship with alcohol; its markets, restaurants, and other eateries; and, how Sydneysiders, old and new, eat at home. The story concludes with a fascinating review of the city's many significant cookbooks and their origins, and some iconic recipes relied upon through what is, for a global city, a remarkably brief history.
George Anson Byron (1789-1868), cousin of the famous poet, was a naval officer and the seventh Baron Byron. When the king and queen of Hawaii died of measles in July 1824 on a visit to England, Byron was chosen to lead the voyage that returned the bodies to their native land. Prepared by Maria Graham (1785-1842), known later as Lady Callcott, this work was published in 1826 and organised into two parts: the first gives a brief history of the islands, culminating in an account of the fatal visit; the second and larger part is compiled from the journals of those on board HMS Blonde. Engravings made from the drawings of the ship's artist, Robert Dampier, complement observations about the geography of Hawaii, its people and their customs. The remarkable journey home involved the first European sighting of Malden Island and the rescue of survivors from a shipwreck.
Originally published in 1964, this book presents a study of domestic capital formation in Australia from 1860 to 1900, a period of vigorous economic expansion. The text is divided into four main parts: the first discusses the conditions of Australian economic growth; the second is a historical analysis of private investment; the third studies investment in communications in relation to the public sector; the fourth investigates structural readjustment in the light of the end of expansion. Illustrative figures and numerous tables are also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Australian history and the development of the Australian economy.
In May 1787, eleven ships left England with more than seven hundred convicts on board, along with orders to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay, New South Wales. Watkin Tench (c.1758 1833) was a crew member on one of the ships of this First Fleet, the Charlotte, and he recalls the voyage and early days of the settlement in this vivid and engaging account, first published in 1789. The first half of the work retraces the route of the six-month journey, which took the fleet to Brazil and the Cape of Good Hope. The later chapters recount the landing at Botany Bay in January 1788, the establishment of a colony at nearby Port Jackson and observations about the natural world in this new settlement. Tench also discusses the initial interaction with the Aboriginal people, making this work an important source for scholars of British colonialism and Australian history.
As a surgeon and naturalist for the New Zealand Company, Ernst Dieffenbach (1811-55) travelled widely in the North Island between 1839 and 1841. He was the first European to successfully scale Mount Egmont (or Taranaki), and he also visited the natural wonders of the Pink and White Terraces at Lake Rotomahana, which were later destroyed in a volcanic eruption. First published in 1843, this two-volume work describes the landscapes, flora and fauna in a highly readable style. In Volume 1, Dieffenbach recounts his sea journeys through Cook Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound, along with his excursions deep into the North Island. There is also a thorough account of his ambitious climb to the snowy summit of Mount Egmont. His passages relating to the people he encountered also give an insight into the lives of the native islanders. This volume includes illustrations of Lake Taupo, Mount Egmont and Mount Ruapehu.
As a surgeon and naturalist for the New Zealand Company, Ernst Dieffenbach (1811-55) travelled widely in the North Island between 1839 and 1841. He was the first European to successfully scale Mount Egmont (or Taranaki), and he also visited the natural wonders of the Pink and White Terraces at Lake Rotomahana, which were later destroyed in a volcanic eruption. First published in 1843, this two-volume work describes the landscapes, flora and fauna in a highly readable style. Volume 2 focuses on the Maori inhabitants of the island, for whom Dieffenbach had a respect and admiration that was unusual for the time. He writes about their customs, such as hunting techniques, burial practices and the tradition of facial tattooing. He also provides examples of Maori language, including songs and simple phrases. The final section of the work comprises a short grammar and dictionary.
A History of Victoria is a lively account of the people, places and events that have shaped Victoria, from the arrival of the first Aboriginal peoples through to the present day. In his inimitable style, Geoffrey Blainey considers Victoria's transformation from rural state to urban society. He speculates on the contrasts between Melbourne and Sydney, and describes formative events in Victoria's history, including the exploits of Ned Kelly, the rise of Australian Football and the Olympics of 1956. Melbourne's latest population boom, sprawling suburbs and expanding ethnic communities are explored. Blainey also casts light on Victoria's recent political history. This edition features sections on the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009, the end of the drought and the controversy surrounding the Wonthaggi desalination plant. New illustrations, photographs and maps enrich the narrative. Written by one of Australia's leading historians, this book offers remarkable insight into Victoria's unique position within Australian history.
Beginning with Lillian de Lissa's career as foundation principal of the Adelaide Kindergarten Training College in Australia (1907-1917) and Gipsy Hill Training College in London (1917-1947), and incorporating the lives and work of her Australian and British graduates, this book illuminates the transnational circulation of knowledge about teacher education and early childhood education in the twentieth century. Acutely aware of anxieties regarding the role of modern women and the social positioning of teachers, students who attended college under de Lissa's leadership experienced a progressive institutional culture and comprehensive preparation for work as kindergarten, nursery and infant teachers. Drawing on a broad range of archival material, this study explores graduates' professional and domestic lives, leisure activities and civic participation, from their initial work as novice teachers through diverse life paths to their senior years. Due to the interwar marriage bar, many women teachers married, resigned from paid work and became mothers. The book explores their experiences, along with those of lifelong teachers whose work spread across a range of educational fields and different parts of the world. Although most graduates spent their lives in Australia or England, de Lissa's personal and professional networks traversed the British dominions and colonies, Europe and the USA, fostering fascinating global connections between people, places and educational ideas.
The British journalist and mining expert John Baptist Austin (1827-96) moved to Adelaide as a young man with his family. During the 1850s he became closely involved in the South Australian mining industry and the gold rush in Victoria. Austin was rewarded for his outstanding expertise and became secretary of several corporations, including the Adelaide and West Kanmantoo mining companies. His extensive knowledge is reflected in this work, first published in 1863. Offering a first-hand account of South Australian mining culture, it contains a great many descriptions of individual mines along with details of the everyday life of the miners. The book also provides insight into the region's Cornish mining heritage: many mines were named 'Wheal', family names such as 'Rodda' are mentioned, and direct comparisons of the mineralogy and the regulations for mineral prospecting are made.
Since the nineteenth-century expeditions, Northern Australia has been both a fascination and concern to the administrators of settler governance in Australia. Neighboring Southeast Asia and Melanesia, its expansive and relatively undeveloped tropical savanna lands are alternately framed as a market opportunity, an ecological prize, a threat to national sovereignty, and a social welfare problem. Over the last several decades, while developers have eagerly promoted the mineral and agricultural potential of its monsoonal catchments, conservationists speak of these same sites as rare biodiverse habitats, and settler governments focus on the "social dysfunction" of its Indigenous communities. Meanwhile, across the north, Indigenous people themselves have sought to wrest greater equity in the management of their lives and the use of their country. In Wild Articulations, Neale examines environmentalism, indigeneity, and development in Northern Australia through the recent controversy surrounding the Wild Rivers Act 2005 (Qld) in Cape York Peninsula, an event that drew together a diverse cast of actors-including traditional owners, prime ministers, politicians, environmentalists, mining companies, the late Steve Irwin, crocodiles, and river systems-to contest the future of the north. With a population of fewer than 18,000 people spread over a landmass of over 50,000 square miles, Cape York Peninsula remains a "frontier" in many senses. Long constructed as a wild space-whether as terra nullius, a zone of legal exception, or a biodiverse wilderness region in need of conservation-Australia's north has seen two fundamental political changes over the past two decades. The first is the legal recognition of Indigenous land rights, reaching over a majority of its area. The second is that the region has been the center of national debates regarding the market integration and social normalization of Indigenous people, attracting the attention of federal and state governments and becoming a site for intensive neoliberal reforms. Drawing connections with other settler colonial nations such as Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand, Wild Articulations examines how indigenous lands continue to be imagined and governed as "wild."
In November 1806, the damaged Port-au-Prince arrived at what Captain Cook had called the Friendly Islands. William Charles Mariner (1791-1853) was among the few crew members spared by the native inhabitants. He lived there for four years. Published in 1818, this two-volume second edition offers an important early insight into Tongan customs and language. As editor John Martin (1789-1869) explains, the structure of a nation's language is vital to the consideration of its history. So successful was the first edition of 1817 - expanded upon here to include 'generally corroborative, and in a few instances somewhat corrective' information from another erstwhile inhabitant - that within months of its publication a French translation appeared; German and American editions soon followed. Volume 2 covers diverse aspects of Tongan society, from its music to notions of the soul, and includes a detailed grammar of the language and 2,000 words of vocabulary.
Karl Hanssen's memoirs provide an invaluable outsider's view of life in New Zealand prisons and a unique perspective on German Samoa under New Zealand occupation. In October 1915, Hanssen, manager of the DHPG, a large German copra production company, was sent from Samoa to New Zealand to serve a six-month sentence imposed by a New Zealand military court for bypassing war censorship regulations. He served his sentence in a number of prisons in New Zealand, including two months in the high-security prison, Mt Eden. Hanssen's memoirs - in English translation and in the original German - are made available for the first time in this edition, which also features photos from his Samoan album and a comprehensive introduction by Bronwyn Chapman on the historical and political background.
'Luca Antara is a book-lover's book, a graceful and mesmerizing blend of history, autobiography, travel and romance.' - JM Coetzee Part memoir, travelogue, history and part detective story, Luca Antara is a rich tapestry of history and the present. It parallels the life of the author, an emigre to Sydney, and the life of an historical figure, Antonio da Nova, the servant of a Portuguese explorer who in the 1600s sends him to find out more about Luca Antara (now Australia). New to Sydney, Martin Edmond finds himself impoverished and displaced. He earns money as a taxi driver but spends his spare time frequenting second hand bookshops trying to learn more about the history of Australia and the wider region. The people Edmond encounters in his taxi and in his search for rare books are varied and strange, offering the reader a voyeuristic glimpse into Sydney's sub-culture. Sent to discover more about Luca Antara, Antonio da Nova's crew mutiny and dump him on the West Australian coast. He is found by Aborigines, who take him on an epic walk across northern Australia. Eventually he manages to return to his master in Portugal who awaits news of his explorations. Edmond's reading centres upon da Nova, but each book he reads leads to another and the subject becomes broader and increasingly fascinating. The lives of the two men and the strange customs and unique social mores of each man's culture and time intertwine throughout the book, ending with Edmond literally walking in the footsteps of da Nova across northern Australia.
The famous explorer of the Arctic region, Sir John Franklin (1786 1847) was appointed Governor of the penal colony of Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land) in 1837. At first enthusiastically welcomed by the free colonists of the island, Franklin quickly became embroiled in political and administrative difficulties, and his compassion for convicts and aboriginals alike was incompatible with his duties. In 1843, colonial officials loyal to his predecessor succeeded in getting Franklin recalled by sending damaging accounts of his conduct to London. This pamphlet was Franklin's defence of his own character against these misrepresentations, but he was not to see his reputation recovered. He completed the book on 15 May 1845, just days before he departed on another Arctic expedition to search for the North-West Passage. Franklin and his entire crew died on the journey, and only many years later was the tragic fate of the expedition discovered.
Arthur Cornwallis Evans (1860 1935) was chaplain on the steamship HMS Calliope on a three-year voyage to Asia and Australia (January 1887 to April 1890) that covered 76,814 nautical miles (88,395 miles), with more than 500 days spent at sea. He compiled this lively account of the voyage at the request of his shipmates, drawing information from several of their journals, and published it in Portsmouth in 1890 before the crew dispersed. It contains both brief factual entries about the progress of the voyage and more sustained descriptions of life on board ship and in port, including some naval culinary 'delicacies', an encounter with a robber in Hong Kong, the Russian foritifications at Vladivostok, fireworks in Sydney celebrating the centenary of New South Wales, the opening of Calliope Dock in Auckland (still in use today), visits to several Pacific islands, cricket matches and regattas, and an eclipse of the sun."
This two-volume work by Captain Phillip Parker King (1791-1856) was published in 1827, and describes the Royal Navy's 1817-22 surveying expedition to chart the coastal regions of Australia. King carried out the surveys in two successive ships, the Mermaid, which was declared unseaworthy in 1820, and the newly commissioned Bathurst. He worked on the charts, which were published by the Hydrographic Office, for two years after his return to England. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, and later undertook a similar surveying voyage, in which he was accompanied by Captain Fitzroy on the Beagle, around the coast of South America. The book is derived from the author's journal, and describes not only the voyages but also the towns and settlements and the natural history of the region, often making comparisons with Captain Cook's account. Volume 1 covers the south, east and north coasts of Australia.
This two-volume work by Captain Phillip Parker King (1791-1856) was published in 1827, and describes the Royal Navy's 1817-22 surveying expedition to chart the coastal regions of Australia. King carried out the surveys in two successive ships, the Mermaid, which was declared unseaworthy in 1820, and the newly commissioned Bathurst. He worked on the charts, which were published by the Hydrographic Office, for two years after his return to England. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, and later undertook a similar surveying voyage, in which he was accompanied by Captain Fitzroy on the Beagle, around the coast of South America. The book is derived from the author's journal, and describes not only the voyages but also the towns and settlements of the region. Volume 2 continues the survey along the north and west coasts of Australia, and contains an appendix describing winds, currents, ports and islands. |
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