The Oxford Companion To Australian History

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Fine
Jacket Condition: Fine
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publisher Place: Melbourne
Publisher Year: 1999
Edition: Reprint

Description: 716 pages. Book and Jacket appear to have hardly been read and are both in Fine condition throughout.

Publishers Description: Here, in a single volume, is a superb new reference book for all Australians. Publication of The Oxford Companion to Australian History is very timely, for it appears during a period of acute interest in our national history and in the way Australias identity has been shaped and reshaped since European settlement.The Companion draws on the latest scholarship and covers the people, institutions, and events that have shaped Australian society, politics, and culture. It is edited by three of Australias finest historiansGraeme Davison, John Hirst, and Stuart Macintyreand includes contributions from 317 scholars and writers throughout Australia. An older generation of pioneering Australian historians is represented by such distinguished scholars as Geoffrey Blainey, Geoffrey Serle, and A.G.L. Shaw. Succeeding generations are represented by writers such as Alan Atkinson, Judith Brett, Tom Griffiths, and Brian Matthews. There are also entries by some of the most notable Australians. For instance, Zelman Cowen writes about governor-generals, and Barry Jones writes about biographical dictionaries.The Companion contains approximately 1600 entries, ranging from essays of up to 2000 words to succinct, factual entries of 100 words. There are entries on politicians, colonisers, visionaries, newspaper barons, industrialists, explorers, writers, artists, and scientists. All the most famous Australians appear in the Companion, including Don Bradman, Ned Kelly, John Curtin, Joan Sutherland, and Patrick White. There are entries on the states, key institutions, prominent families, and famous or infamous events, such as Gallipoli, the Dismissal, the Rum Rebellion, and the Waterloo Creek Massacre. There are numerous extended essays on key facets of our national lifepolitical, social, cultural, scientific, military, and economic. Readers will find incisive entries on matters such as art, capital punishment, gambling, language, literature, military history, and republicanism. The Companion is immensely readable and entertaining, with a range of more curious and unexpected entries, such as those on duals, madness, the six oclock swill, two-up, and Vegemite.This superb new Companion thus provides learned, accessible, and up-to-date studies of the key chapters and personalities in Australian history. This book is thoroughly cross-referenced, to permit easy access to all the information, and there is also a helpful subject index. The Oxford Companion to Australian History is a reference book that no one should be without.

ISBN: 9780195535976