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Books > History > Australasian & Pacific history > General
Illicit Love is a history of love, sex, and marriage between
Indigenous peoples and settler citizens at the heart of two settler
colonial nations, the United States and Australia. Award-winning
historian Ann McGrath illuminates interracial relationships from
the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century through stories
of romance, courtship, and marriage between Indigenous peoples and
colonizers in times of nation formation. Illicit Love reveals how
marriage itself was used by disparate parties for both empowerment
and disempowerment and how it came to embody the contradictions of
imperialism. A tour de force of settler colonial history, McGrath's
study demonstrates vividly how interracial relationships between
Indigenous and colonizing peoples were more frequent and
threatening to nation-states in the Atlantic and the Pacific worlds
than historians have previously acknowledged.
Presents the experiences of two burgeoning cities and the Irish
people that helped to establish what it was 'to be Irish' within
themSet within colonial Melbourne and Chicago, this book explores
the shifting influences of religious demography, educational
provision and club culture to shed new light on what makes a
diasporic ethnic community connect and survive over multiple
generations. The author focuses on these Irish populations as they
grew alongside their cities establishing the cultural and political
institutions of Melbourne and Chicago, and these comparisons allow
scholars to explore what happens when an ethnic group so often
considered 'other' have a foundational role in a city instead of
entering a society with established hierarchies. Forging Identities
in the Irish World places women and children alongside men to
explore the varied influences on migrant identity and community
life.
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 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.
Edward Gibbon Wakefield (1796-1862) was a colonial advocate and
political theorist, who was influential in the early colonisation
of New Zealand and South Australia. Wakefield read widely on
contemporary economics and social questions, and his theory of
colonisation helped shape the British Empire. He formed the New
Zealand Association in 1837 to create a new colony in that country,
finally emigrating himself in 1852. His son, the editor of this
volume of letters, was appointed secretary of the first settler
expedition to New Zealand in 1839, and was elected political
representative for Canterbury in 1854. The letters in the volume,
published in 1868, which span the period 1847-50, trace the history
of the town of Canterbury from Wakefield senior's suggestion of
church-led settlement in the 1840s to its foundation in 1850-1. A
planned second volume was never published.
Educated at Sandhurst, Sir George Grey (1812 98) became Governor of
South Australia when he was not yet thirty. Later he served as
Governor of New Zealand and High Commissioner for South Africa, and
in the 1870s he enjoyed a period as premier of New Zealand.
Although he liked to portray himself as 'good Governor Grey', some
of his contemporaries found him ruthless and manipulative. Like
many other Victorian administrators, he was convinced that the
'savage' natives needed to be 'improved' in order to become more
like Europeans. In this 1841 publication, Grey writes about two
expeditions to North West Australia that took place under his
leadership in 1837 9. Both expeditions encountered difficulties,
and Grey himself was seriously wounded. In Volume 2, Grey focuses
on the language and culture of the native Australians, and reveals
his plans for 'raising' the Aborigines to what he regards a
'civilised' level.
In 1822, an ambitious but bankrupt mariner named James Mudie
arrived in Australia. With the support and patronage of the
Colonial Office he was appointed justice of the peace and went on
to acquire a reputation as one of the harshest and most brutal
magistrates in New South Wales. Published in 1837, as a gesture of
protest against Sir Richard Burke's relative leniency, Mudie's
account of the 'social, moral and political condition' of the penal
colony terrified British readers. Using dramatic imagery and
anecdotes to support his argument, the author recommends a
three-pronged attack on the 'depraved appetites and vicious
courses' of convicts. Advocating strict discipline, the subjection
of the will of the prisoner to that of the master, and 'religious
impression', Mudie's treatise reveals not only the challenges
facing nineteenth-century magistrates, but also the brutal
treatment that awaited those whose punishment began with
transportation to Australasia.
James Tuckey (1776-1816) was a naval officer who was appointed
first lieutenant on H.M.S. Calcutta. In 1802 the ship was given
orders to sail to New South Wales, Australia, to survey the harbour
at Port Phillip, and to establish a colony. The Calcutta departed
from Portsmouth in April 1803 and arrived in New South Wales in
October. After Tuckey returned from the assignment, he published
this account in 1805. He begins the work by explaining the motives
behind establishing the colony - it was to be used for convicts,
some of whom he was transporting on the ship. The first four
chapters discuss the journey but the final chapter focuses on the
attempts to establish a colony and encounters with the indigenous
population, and gives a survey of the coastline. Port Phillip
became the city Melbourne, and this work is a valuable source about
its early years of settlement.
A unique and outstanding military and industrial achievement, the
Collins class submarine project was also plagued with difficulties
and mired in politics. Its story is one of heroes and villains,
grand passions, intrigue, lies, spies and backstabbing. It is as
well a story of enormous commitment and resolve to achieve what
many thought impossible. The building of these submarines was
Australia's largest, most expensive and most controversial military
project. From initiation in the 1981 82 budget to the delivery of
the last submarine in 2003, the total cost was in excess of six
billion dollars. Over 130 key players were interviewed for this
book, and the Australian Defence Department allowed access to its
classified archives and the Australian Navy archives. Vividly
illustrated with photographs from the collections of the Royal
Australian Navy and ASC Pty Ltd, The Collins Class Submarine Story:
Steel, Spies and Spin, first published in 2008, is a riveting and
accessibly written chronicle of a grand-scale quest for excellence.
"Asia, the Pacific Islands and the coasts of the Americas have long
been studied separately. This essential single-volume history of
the Pacific traces the global interactions and remarkable peoples
that have connected these regions with each other and with Europe
and the Indian Ocean, for millennia. From ancient canoe navigators,
monumental civilisations, pirates and seaborne empires, to the rise
of nuclear testing and global warming, Matt Matsuda ranges across
the frontiers of colonial history, anthropology and Pacific Rim
economics and politics, piecing together a history of the region.
The book identifies and draws together the defining threads and
extraordinary personal narratives which have contributed to this
history, showing how localised contacts and contests have often
blossomed into global struggles over colonialism, tourism and the
rise of Asian economies. Drawing on Asian, Oceanian, European,
American, ancient and modern narratives, the author assembles a
fascinating Pacific region from a truly global perspective"--
In May 1787 a fleet of ships carrying convicts left England bound
for Botany Bay, New South Wales, where they were to establish a
settlement. One of the crew on board the Charlotte was Watkin Tench
(c.1758-1833), who wrote about the voyage of what was later known
as the First Fleet. He remained in New South Wales, living in Port
Jackson (part of present-day Sydney) from 1788 to 1791, and in this
work, published in 1793, he gives a vivid, first-hand account of
the early years of British settlement. The chapters are
chronologically organised and discuss the many challenges settlers
in the fledgling colony faced in staying alive, such as illness and
lack of food and other provisions. He also recounts the often
violent encounters and 'unabated animosity' between the settlers
and the aboriginal people, making this work an important source on
the colonisation of Australia.
Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) joined the Royal Navy at fifteen,
later claiming to have been inspired by Robinson Crusoe. He served
under William Bligh, and charted the Bass Strait in 1798. In 1801
he was commissioned to chart 'New Holland', and so became the first
to circumnavigate the island he referred to as Australia. After
being shipwrecked on the Barrier Reef and imprisoned for six years
on Mauritius on suspicion of spying, he returned to England in 1810
and began work on A Voyage to Terra Australis. He died the day
after his book and maps were published. This biography, published
in 1914 to mark the centenary of his death, was the first
comprehensive study of this central figure of Australian maritime
exploration. The leading Australian historian Ernest Scott
(1868-1939) based his account on material held in private
collections in France as well as on documents deposited in
Australian libraries.
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.
First published anonymously in 1863, this classic book recounts the
experiences of Frederick Edward Maning (c.1811-83), an Anglo-Irish
trader who emigrated to Tasmania with his family as a boy and later
relocated to New Zealand. A self-styled 'Pakeha-Maori' ('Pakeha' is
the Maori word for a white New Zealander), Maning acquired land and
settled down with a Maori woman, occupying a tenuous position
between the two cultures. Observing that the old Maori way of life
was rapidly disappearing due to the increased European presence in
New Zealand, Maning endeavoured to record Maori customs and
material culture before all knowledge of them disappeared. Old New
Zealand is a mixture of history, autobiography and anecdote, and
the author insists all the incidents and people described are real.
The language is informal, and the narrative vigorous and rapid,
with lively dialogues and occasional Maori phrases. A glossary
explains Maori words and concepts.
Originally published in 1884, this work by the relatively unknown
'gentleman explorer' James Henry Kerry-Nicholls (d. 1888) focuses
on nineteenth-century New Zealand. It recounts the journey into
what he describes as terra incognita, the area known as the King
Country, almost exclusively Maori and little explored by Europeans
due to political difficulties and Maori hostility. Travelling with
only three horses and what he could carry on them, and accompanied
by an interpreter, he endeavoured to cover and accurately record
details of an area totalling 10,000 square miles; owing to good
contacts, he was even able to meet Maori King Tawhiao. Writing in
what now seems an imperialist style, he recounts a history of
Maori-European relations, notes potential sites for European
settlement, includes geographical surveys and descriptions of the
landscapes, and supplies a map which gives the 'most complete chart
of the interior of the North Island as yet published'.
Henry Demarest Lloyd (1847 1903), writer and social reformer, rose
to prominence as one of America's first muckraker journalists. Born
in New York City, Lloyd started his journalism career at the
Chicago Tribune and went on to expose the abuse of power in
American oil companies. He also pursued a career in politics. In
1899 he travelled to New Zealand and Australia, the 'political
laboratories' of Great Britain, to investigate how they resolved
the conflict between organised capital and organised labour, and
how they promoted social welfare. This book, published in 1900,
praises New Zealand's system of compulsory arbitration and
describes many instances of successful dispute resolution, from
clothing manufacture to newspaper typesetting. The book includes an
introduction by William Pember Reeves (1857 1932), liberal
newspaper editor and writer, who as New Zealand's minister of
labour had brought in the Arbitration Act of 1894 and other
important labour legislation."
The politician, landowner and journalist W. C. Wentworth
(1790-1872), was an energetic and controversial character in the
early history of modern Australia. Together with Gregory Blaxland
and William Lawson, he was the first to cross Australia's Blue
Mountains. A well-known public figure in the colony of New South
Wales, he founded a newspaper called The Australian (in 1824) and
campaigned, among other things, for a free press, trial by jury,
rights for emancipated convicts, public education, and a
representative government. He also became extremely wealthy. In
this book, first published in 1819, Wentworth argues that the
Australian colonies are a better choice than the United States of
America for European emigrants. The book contains a vast amount of
information about the colonies of New South Wales and Tasmania,
together with Wentworth's suggestions for the improvement of their
government, and remains an important source for historians.
Written in 1914 by Alice, Lady Lovat (1846-1938), a cousin, this
biography of Sir Frederick Aloysius Weld (1823-91) is characterised
by its subtitle, 'a pioneer of empire'. The young Weld emigrated to
New Zealand with a cousin to establish sheep stations. Entering
politics, he became Minister for Native Affairs and then Premier;
his Native Rights Act of 1865 redressed many of the grievances
which had led to the Maori Wars. In 1868 he was appointed Governor
of Western Australia, where he brought in a degree of
representative government and helped develop the telegraph and
transport infrastructure. In 1874 he became Governor of Tasmania,
and in 1880 was promoted to the Straits Settlements, where his
period as a colonial administrator was notable for the increase of
British influence among the princely rulers of the Malay States.
Retiring in 1887 for health reasons, he died in England in 1891.
In October 1854 the Taranaki Herald reported the return to New
Zealand of Charles Hursthouse, who 'for years past has been in
England the untiring advocate of New Zealand emigration, and by his
writings and lectures has materially contributed to the
colonization of the settlement'. In this updated 1861 version of
his 1857 book, Hursthouse promises 'a fair and honest picture of
New Zealand as she is today' and expresses his belief that
thousands of struggling British people from all walks of life would
be 'saved' by emigrating. He describes New Zealand's history,
climate, natural history, population, government, exports and
markets, agricultural pursuits and trades, and includes a revealing
chapter on war and 'native policy'. Hursthouse explains his own
reasons for emigrating, and provides practical advice on official
regulations, travel insurance, choice of ship, the best times to
sail and how to keep occupied during the voyage.
Published in 1892, this two-volume biography chronicles the
remarkable life and career of Sir George Grey (1812-98), the 11th
premier of New Zealand. William Lee Rees (1836-1912), lawyer,
politician and well-known supporter of Grey, co-wrote this work
with his daughter Lily, and the books outline how Grey became
arguably the most influential figure during the European settlement
of New Zealand in the nineteenth century. The volumes proceed
chronologically and are organised by the main events in Grey's
life. Volume 2 covers Grey's second governorships of Cape Colony
and New Zealand, his engagement in English politics and his return
to New Zealand in 1870. It concludes with an assessment of Grey's
personal characteristics, successes and failures. In addition to
recounting the incidents, adventures and achievements of Grey's
life, Rees also conveys Grey's principles and aspirations, giving
the reader an insight into the character of this servant of the
empire.
Arthur S. Thomson (1816-60) was a Scottish military surgeon and
medical scientist who was posted to New Zealand in the late 1840s.
During his eleven years in the country, settlement increased and
British sovereignty over the colony was extended. Thomson felt that
previous historical accounts of New Zealand all demonstrated a
certain political, colonial or religious bias, and decided to write
his own comprehensive history of the islands, which was published
in 1859. Volume 1 begins with a focus on the geography and climate
of New Zealand. Thomson then describes the physical appearance of
the New Zealanders, their way of life, their culture, their
property laws and the origin of their (now abandoned) cannibalism.
Next he describes the history of discovery and settlement by
Europeans, who brought 'true civilisation' to the islands. Thomson
gives especial credit to the Christian missionaries for having
introduced progress and enlightenment.
Arthur S. Thomson (1816-60) was a Scottish military surgeon and
medical scientist who was posted to New Zealand in the late 1840s.
During his eleven years in the country, settlement increased and
British sovereignty over the colony was extended. Thomson felt that
previous historical accounts of New Zealand all demonstrated a
certain political, colonial or religious bias, and decided to write
his own comprehensive history of the islands, which was published
in 1859. In Volume 2, Thomson continues the story of European
discovery and settlement. He justifies the progress of British
colonisation by arguing that it brought civilisation to the native
people, fully supporting the introduction of English (property) law
and the introduction of Christianity. Thomson advocates that the
Maoris be taught English, as this is the only way to give them hope
that they can 'rise above the hewers of wood and drawers of water'.
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