'Aperceptive, balanced, wide-ranging interpretation of the evolution of modernAustralia which is both erudite and well-written' - Duncan Bythell
JohnRickard's Australia: A Cultural History, firstpublished in 1988, is still the only short history of Australia from a culturalperspective. It has also acquired a reputation as an introduction to thedevelopment of Australian society and was listed by the historian and publicintellectual John Hirst in his 'First XI: The best Australian history books'.
Althougharranged chronologically, this book is not a chronicle, still less a laboriousdetailing of governors and governments: rather, it focuses on the transmissionof values, beliefs, and customs amongst the diverse mix of peoples who aretoday's Australians. The story begins with sixty thousand years of Aboriginal presence and their continuing material and spiritual relationshipwith the land, and takes the reader through the turbulent years of Britishcolonisation and the emergence, through prosperity, war, and depression, of thecultural accommodations which have been distinctively Australian. This third edition concludes with a critical review of the challenges facing contemporaryAustralia and warns readers that 'we may get the future we deserve'.