Australasian and Pacific history Books

Book SynopsisFor the first time, the First Nations story of Cook’s arrival, and what blackfellas want everyone to know about the coming of Europeans. Both 250 years late and extremely timely, this is an account of what First Nations people saw and felt when James Cook navigated their shores in 1770. We know the European story from diaries, journals and letters. For the first time, this is the other side. Who were the people watching the Endeavour sail by? How did they understand their world and what sense did they make of this strange vision? And what was the impact of these first encounters with Europeans? The answers lie in tales passed down from 1770 and in truth-telling of the often more brutal engagements that followed. Darren Rix (a Gunditjmara-GunaiKurnai man, radio reporter and Archie Roach’s nephew) and his co-author Craig Cormick travelled to all the places on the east coast that were renamed by Cook, and listened to people’s stories. With their permission, these stories have been woven together with the European accounts and placed in their deeper context: the places Cook named already had names; the places he ‘discovered’ already had peoples and stories stretching back before time; and although Cook sailed on, the empire he represented impacted the people’s lives and lands immeasurably in the years after. ‘Warra Warra Wai’ was the expression called to Cook and his crew when they tried to make landfall in Botany Bay. It has long been interpreted as ‘Go away’, but is perhaps more accurately translated as ‘You are all dead spirits’. In adding the First Nations version of these first encounters to the story of Australian history, this is a book that will sit on Australian shelves alongside Cook’s Journals, Dark Emu and The Fatal Shore as one of our foundational texts.

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Book SynopsisThe first 'bushrangers' or frontier outlaws were escaped or time-expired convicts, who took to the wilderness 'the bush' in New South Wales and on the island of Tasmania. Initially, the only Crown forces available were redcoats from the small, scattered garrisons, but by 1825 the problem of outlawry led to the formation of the first Mounted Police from these soldiers. The gold strikes of the 1860s attracted a new group of men who preferred to get rich by the gun rather than the shovel. The roads, and later railways, that linked the mines with the cities offered many tempting targets and were preyed upon by the bushrangers. This 1860s generation boasted many famous outlaws who passed into legend for their boldness. The last outbreak came in Victoria in 1880, when the notorious Kelly Gang staged several hold-ups and deliberately ambushed the pursuing police. Their last stand at Glenrowan has become a legendary episode in Australian history. Fully illustrated with some rare periTrade ReviewAn excellent read – Miniature Wargames Recommends Medal. * Miniature Wargames *Table of ContentsIntroduction * Origins of British penal settlement in Australia, and how its character shaped governance and policing. [In each following chronological chapter, emphasis will be given not just to events, personalities, and organized groups, but also to appearance and weapons.] * The first 'bushrangers': escaped prisoners in the 1810s-20s – e.g., Matthew Brady, Martin Cash ('The Robin Hood of Van Diemen's Land'), and 'Bold Jack' Donohoe (the original 'Wild Colonial Boy' immortalised in song) * The government response: British regular troops, and creation of first Mounted Police from military personnel * The 1860s Gold Rush: a new breed of robber gangleaders – e.g., Frank Lowry, 'Captain Moonlight', 'Mad Dog' Dan Morgan, Frank Gardiner, and Ben Hall – formation of new Mounted Police in Victoria and Queensland * The 1870s: robberies, raids and gunfights – hunting down of bushranger gangs * Final outbreak in 1880: the Kelly Gang – Springbark Creek ambush of police – last shoot-out at Glenrowan * Summary and conclusion * Plate Commentaries.

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Book Synopsis**Voted Wisden Cricket Monthly's best cricket book ever in 2019**WINNER, BEST CRICKET BOOK, BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2010_________________Golden Boy is a blistering exposé of the tumultuous Lillee/Marsh/Chappells era of Australian cricket, as viewed through the lens of flawed genius Kim Hughes._________________Kim Hughes was one of the most majestic and daring batsmen to play for Australia in the last 40 years. Golden curled and boyishly handsome, his rise and fall as captain and player is unparalleled in cricketing history. He played several innings that count as all-time classics, but it's his tearful resignation from the captaincy that is remembered.Insecure but arrogant, abrasive but charming; in Hughes' character were the seeds of his own destruction. Yet was Hughes' fall partly due to those around him, men who are themselves legends in Australia's cricketing history? Lillee, Marsh, the Chappells, all had their agendas, all were unhappy with his selection and performance as captain - evidenced by Dennis Lillee's tendency to aim bouncers relentlessly at Hughes' head during net practice.Hughes' arrival on the Test scene coincided with the most turbulent time Australian cricket has ever seen - first Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket, then the rebel tours to South Africa. Both had dramatic effects on Hughes' career. As he traces the high points and the low, Christian Ryan sheds new and fascinating light on the cricket - and the cricketers - of the times.Trade ReviewChristian Ryan's Golden Boy has this brawny lyricism ... It's really alive, that book. Like a great Australian novel. Hughes personifies something mercurial, ethereal, this artistic flair alongside these macho, rugged, brawny bruisers like Marsh and Lillee. It's told with such lyricism and tempo. I found it absolutely enthralling and a real revelation. -- William Fiennes, member of Wisden Cricket Monthly's Best Cricket Book Ever judging panelAt once unputdownable and also unpickupable, because if you pick it up you will eventually finish it, and what are you going to do then? -- Rob Smyth * Guardian *It made me laugh, it told me things, it reminded me why I love the subject I'm reading about and it put a series of images in my head that I won't ever forget. It's audacious, it's got chutzpah, it's done with a lyrical flourish. I didn't know cricket books could be written like this. -- Phil Walker, editor of Wisden Cricket MonthlyA cracking read ... An almost tragic but compelling tale of how Hughes tried hard - and failed - to fit his smiling personality into the hard-faced world of his country's uniquely macho and badly moustached team. * The Observer *Graphic ... Shocking ... Devastating ... If half of what we read here is true, two Australian legends should hang their heads in shame. -- Simon Wilde * The Times *A valuable archive of the professional cricketer's lot during the 1980s - paltry wages, petty officials, vermin-infested hotels and astonishing levels of alcohol consumption ... a fascinating account of Australian cricket's leanest years. * Times Literary Supplement *Absolutely superb, one of the best cricket books I've read. -- John Stern * The Wisden Cricketer *

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Book SynopsisIn 1938, the anthropologist Norman Tindale gave a classroom of young Aboriginal children a set of crayons and asked them to draw. The children, residents of the government-run Aboriginal station Cummeragunja, mostly drew pictures of aspects of white civilization boats, houses and flowers. What now to make of their artwork? Were the children encouraged or pressured to draw non-Aboriginal scenes, or did they draw freely, appropriating the white culture they now lived within? Did their Aboriginality change the meaning of their art, as they sketched out this ubiquitous colonial imagery? Australian Settler Colonialism and the Cummeragunja Aboriginal Station traces Cummeragunja's history from its establishment in the 1880s to its mass walk-off in 1939 and finally, to the 1960s, when its residents regained greater control over the land. Taking in oral history traditions, the author reveals the competing interests of settler governments, scientific and religious organizations, and nearby settler communities. The nature of these interests has broad and important implications for understanding settler colonial history. This history shows white people set boundaries on Aboriginal behaviour and movement, through direct legislation and the provision of opportunities and acceptance. But Aboriginal people had agency within and, at times, beyond these limits. Aboriginal people appropriated aspects of white culture including the houses, the flowers and the boats that their children drew for Tindale - reshaping them into new tools for Aboriginal society, tools with which to build lives and futures in a changed environment.Trade Review"Fiona Davis, a non-Indigenous scholar who grew up in northern Victoria, has done a great service by adapting her doctoral thesis into this fine book. She has written a fascinating, thoughtful, and accessible history of Cummeragunja, tracing its story from its late nineteenth century origins in the nearby Maloga Mission, through to the stations official closure in 1953. Her experience as a journalist in northern Victoria is reflected in the engaging storytelling that is at the heart of her book." Samuel Furphy, Australian National University, Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 46, no 1, March 2015.

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Book SynopsisSir Edmund Hillary described Douglas Mawson’s epic and punishing journey across 600 miles of unknown Antarctic wasteland as ‘the greatest story of lone survival in polar exploration’.This Accursed Land tells that story; how Mawson declined to join Captain Robert Scott’s ill-fated British expedition and instead lead a three-man husky team to explore the far eastern coastline of the Antarctic continent.But the loss of one member and most of the supplies soon turned the hazardous trek into a nightmare. Mawson was trapped 320 miles from base with barely nine days’ food and nothing for the dogs.Eating poisoned meat, watching his body fall apart, crawling over chasms and crevices of deadly ice, his ultimate and lone struggle for survival, starving, poisoned, exhausted and indescribably cold, is an unforgettable story of human endurance. Grippingly told by Lennard Bickel, this is the most extraordinary journey from the brutal golden age of Antarctic exploration. Perfect for fans of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air or Michael Palin’s Erebus.

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Book SynopsisThe cars, the stars, the thrills and the spills from 60 years of the Bathurst classic by Australia's premier motorsports journalist with a foreword by five-time winner Garth Tander The Bathurst 1000 is undoubtedly Australia's 'Great Race', forever part of the sporting fabric of the nation. The 1000-kilometre race, held on the world-famous Mount Panorama circuit, is both a legend-maker and a heartbreaker, all wrapped up in one thrilling ride. From its beginnings in the 1960s as a 500-mile race for standard production cars, the Bathurst 1000 has evolved into an annual multi-million dollar battle between purpose-built, millimetre-perfect V8-powered Supercars. After six decades of this extraordinary battle on the mountain, The Great Race takes a look back at the thrills, the spills, the legends and the losers of the race's history, from the legendary Ford and Holden battles to how the Mountain made household names of Peter Brock, Allan Moffat, Dick Johnson, Craig Lowndes, Mark Skaife and s

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Book SynopsisSince the end of their involvement in the Vietnam War, the Australian Army has been modernized in every respect. After peacekeeping duties in South-East Asia, Africa and the Middle East in the 1980s90s, ''Diggers'' were sent to safeguard the newly independent East Timor from Indonesian harassment in 1999, and to provide long-term protection and mentoring since 2006. Australian Army units have served in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Australian Special Forces are currently operating alongside US and British elements against ISIS in northern Iraq. During these campaigns the Australian SAS Regiment and Commandos have fully matured into ''Tier 1'' assets, internationally recognized for their wide range of capabilities. The book, written by an Australian author who has written extensively about modern warfare, traces the development of the Army''s organization, combat uniforms, load-bearing equipment, small arms and major weapon systems using specially commissionedTable of ContentsIntroduction: the 'Diggers' – history and character – recent organization; British and US influence/ The lean years, 1970s/ Modernization, 1980s/ Peace-keeping, 1980s–90s: Rwanda, Cambodia, Lebanon, Somalia/ East Timor: Op 'Stabilise', 1999; Op 'Astute', 2006/ Afghanistan: Special Forces Task Group, 2001–2002/ Iraq: Special Operations Forces, 2003; Battle Group, 2005–2008/ Back to Afghanistan: Special Forces/Special Operations Task Group, 2005–2013; Reconstruction Task Force, 2006–2012. * Evolution of Australian Special Ops Forces; return to Iraq/ The future: 2016 Defence White Paper/ Weapons, equipment and vehicles; uniforms, load-bearing equipment and body armor/ Select Bibliography/ Plate Commentaries

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Book SynopsisThe dreaming paths of Aboriginal nations across Australia formed major ceremonial routes along which goods and knowledge flowed. These became the trade routes that criss-crossed Australia and transported religion and cultural values. This book highlights the valuable contribution Aboriginal people made in assisting European explorers, surveyors and stockmen to open the country for colonisation, and explores the interface between Aboriginal possession of the Australian continent and European colonisation and appropriation. Instead of positing a radical disjunction between cultural competencies, Dale Kerwin considers how European colonisation of Australia appropriated Aboriginal competence in terms of the landscape: by tapping into culinary and medicinal knowledge, water and resource knowledge, hunting, food collecting and path-finding. As a consequence of this assistance, Aboriginal dreaming paths and trading routes also became the routes and roads of colonisers. Indeed, the European colonisation of Australia owes much of its success to the deliberate process of Aboriginal land management practices. Dale Kerwin provides a social science context for the broader study of Aboriginal trading routes by setting out an historic interpretation of the Aboriginal/European contact period. His book scrutinises arguments about nomadic and primitive societies, as well as Romantic views of culture and affluence. These circumstances and outcomes are juxtaposed with evidence that indicates that Aboriginal societies are substantially sedentary and highly developed, capable of functional differentiation and foresight -- attributes previously only granted to the European settlers. The hunter-gatherer image of Aboriginal society is rejected by providing evidence of crop cultivation and land management, as well as social arrangements that made best use of a hostile environment. This book is essential reading for all those who seek to have a better knowledge of Australia and its first people: it inscribes Aboriginal people firmly in the body of Australian history.Table of ContentsCommon Sense & Common Nonsense; Coming of the Aliens; Only the Learned Can Read; Maps, Travel & Trade as a Cultural Process; To Travel is to Learn; Misrepresentation of the Grand Narrative -- 'Walk Softly on the Landscape'; Index.

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Book Synopsis'Excellent' Financial Times'Stirring, impressively detailed' Time magazineThe Battle for the Falklands is a thoughtful and informed analysis of an astonishing chapter in modern British history from journalist and military historian Sir Max Hastings and political editor Simon Jenkins.Ten weeks. 28,000 soldiers. 8,000 miles from home.The Falklands War in 1982 was one of the strangest in British history. At the time, many Britons saw it as a tragic absurdity - thousands of men sent overseas for a tiny relic of empire - but the British victory over the Argentinians not only confirmed the quality of British arms but also boosted the political fortunes of Thatcher's Conservative government. However, it left a chequered aftermath and was later overshadowed by the two Gulf wars.Max Hastings’ and Simon Jenkins’ account of the conflict is a modern classic of war reportage and the definitive book on the conflict.Trade ReviewSkilfully woven with Simon Jenkins' sharp political passages are Max Hastings' wonderful dispatches * Sunday Times *Excellent * Guardian *An excellent account of the war * Financial Times *Stirring, impressively detailed * Time Magazine *Authoritative and very readable * Newsweek *Will probably endure as the standard history of the campaign. * New York Times *Table of ContentsSection - i: List of Maps Introduction - ii: Introduction Section - iii: Foreward Chapter - 1: Forgotten Islands Chapter - 2: The Seventeen Years' War Chapter - 3: Galtieri's Gamble Chapter - 4: The Admiral's Hour Chapter - 5: Task Force Chapter - 6: Haig's Doves Chapter - 7: Ascension to South Georgia Chapter - 8: Failure of a Mission Chapter - 9: A War at Sea Chapter - 10: Clearing the Decks Chapter - 11: Operation Sutton Chapter - 12: San Carlos Chapter - 13: Goose Green Chapter - 14: The Politics of the Land War Chapter - 15: Triumph on Kent, Tragedy at Fitzroy Chapter - 16: The Battle for the Mountains Chapter - 17: Aftermath Section - iv: Appendix A: Chronology of Military and Political Events Section - v: Appendix B: The Falkland Islands Task Force Section - vi: The Falkland Honours List Section - vii: Appendix D: The Franks Report Section - viii: Glossary Index - ix: Index

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Book SynopsisIs it possible to write the history of Japan’s colonial subjects? Ziomek contends that it is. By reconstructing individual life histories and following these people as they crossed colonial borders to the metropolis and beyond, Ziomek conveys the dynamic nature of an empire in motion.Trade ReviewLost Histories has several strengths to recommend it and should be required reading for scholars and students in modern Asian history and colonial studies…the method of shifting away from official records (colonial archives) and instead looking to nonofficial records that are textual, oral, visual, and material has opened up new and unfiltered documentation of personal experiences of colonization. -- Alice Y. Tseng * American Historical Review *Ziomek’s remarkable book Lost Histories occupies a unique place within this wave of scholarship [on Japanese imperialism] and represents a valuable contribution to it. What she has done…through her dogged research, is to force us to bring greater precision and empathy to our arguments about ethnicity and agency in colonial rule, in view of the lived experience of colonial subjects. In that sense, the book is truly a gift, one that I hope will feature prominently in future scholarship and teaching on the topic. * H-Diplo Reviews *A meticulously researched, vividly illustrated collection of micro-histories that bring to life the diverse peoples inhabiting the Japanese Empire…Ziomek contests narratives that see Japanese essentialization of ethnic difference as an attempt to strengthen their own position of power. Japan’s fixation on ethnic difference reveals not its success in securing a position of power atop the colonial racial hierarchy but instead the ‘precariousness’ of Japanese rule in the colonies. * Journal of Asian Studies *If, as the Naïve Idealist says, ‘a person’s name has the power to open a connection into their world,’ Kirsten L. Ziomek’s Lost Histories demonstrates that power. Her dogged pursuit of the names and life stories of people who lived within Japan’s formal empire is truly impressive. In several cases Ziomek circumvents the limitations of the ‘colonial archive’ to provide us with portrayals of people whose lives were certainly affected by the ‘oppressive nature of Japan’s colonial policies’ but were nevertheless full and fascinating. * Journal of Japanese Studies *As a work of original research that is both empirically grounded and conceptually bold, Lost Histories is highly recommended to scholars and students of imperial culture, colonial governance, and East Asian history. -- Paul D. Barclay * Journal of World History *Conceptually ambitious and expertly crafted…Lost Histories is especially commendable for its re-creation of the life stories of individual colonial subjects…The quality of scholarship…is superb…Useful to anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of East Asian international relations today. -- Erik Esselstrom * Monumenta Nipponica *Well written and fascinating, the book demonstrates that these lives tell us as much about colonialism as about the impact of colonial subjects on the conduct of Japanese colonial practices. * Choice *

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Book SynopsisFrom its rise in the 1830s to its pinnacle in the 1930s, the opium trade was a guiding force in the Chinese political economy. Opium money was inextricably bound up in local, national, and imperial finances, and the people who piloted the trade were integral to the fabric of Chinese society. In this book, Peter Thilly narrates the dangerous lives and shrewd business operations of opium traffickers in southeast China, situating them within a global history of capitalism. By tracing the evolution of the opium trade from clandestine offshore agreements in the 1830s, to multi-million dollar prohibition bureau contracts in the 1930s, Thilly demonstrates how the modernizing Chinese state was infiltrated, manipulated, and profoundly transformed by opium profiteers. Opium merchants carried the drug by sea, over mountains, and up rivers, with leading traders establishing monopolies over trade routes and territories and assembling "opium armies" to protect their businesses. Over time, and as their ranks grew, these organizations became more bureaucratized and militarized, mimicking—and then eventually influencing, infiltrating, or supplanting—the state. Through the chaos of revolution, warlordism, and foreign invasion, opium traders diligently expanded their power through corruption, bribery, and direct collaboration with the state. Drug traders mattered—not only in the seedy ways in which they have been caricatured but also crucially as shadowy architects of statecraft and China's evolution on the world stage.Trade Review"Despite a vast literature on its eponymous wars, the social history of opium remains largely untold. Thilly's book shows us opium as crop, as commodity, as object of regulation, and as the source of great fortunes. We see the drug touching the lives of a huge range of people: farmers, smugglers, bureaucrats and 'opium kings.' It's a fascinating story, well-told, and rich in contemporary overtones."—Michael Szonyi, Harvard University"Peter Thilly's meticulous study of opium smuggling networks in coastal China is an invaluable addition to the rapidly growing literature on the nineteenth century opium trade, and it throws much-needed light on some under-researched aspects of the connections between drugs and capitalism."—Amitav Ghosh, author of Sea of Poppies"Using an expansive array of evidence drawn together from collections on three continents, including rare materials from Chinese-language archives, Thilly offers insights into the everyday mechanics of what was largely an illegal and morally reprehensible business. His emphasis on how this trade worked sets the book apart from the many previous political and military histories of opium in China. It is a refreshing and valuable contribution to this literature, as well as a landmark history of illicit enterprise in Asia."—Peter Gibson, Asian Studies Review"Thilly takes a deep dive into the drug history of southern Fujian Province from the early 19th century up to the moment all drug commerce was wiped out in China with the Communist victory of 1949, weaving together a saga of narcotics, politics and commerce that involved colonial traders, warlords, gangsters, politicians and the vast network of Fujianese merchants, who operated the mightiest trade networks in East and South China Seas."—David Frazier, Taipei TimesTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Opium Business in Chinese and World History 1. Local Foundations, 1832–1839 2. Negotiated Illegality, 1843–1860 3. Drug Money and the Fiscal-Military State, 1857–1906 4. "Opium Kings" and Tax Farmers in the Age of Prohibition, 1906–1938 5. New Spatialities in the Global Drug Trade, 1890s–1940s 6. Opium and the Frontier of Japanese Power in South China, 1895–1945 Conclusion: Following the Money, Today and in the Past

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Book SynopsisCharles Ulm and Charles Kingsford Smith were the original pioneers of Australian aviation. Together they succeeded in a number of record-breaking flights that made them instant celebrities in Australia and around the world: the first east-to-west crossing of the Pacific, the first trans-Tasman flight, Australia to New Zealand, the first flight from New Zealand to Australia. Business ventures followed for them, as they set up Australian National Airways in late 1928. Smithy was the face of the airline, happier in the cockpit or in front of an audience than in the boardroom. Ulm on the other hand was in his element as managing director. Ulm had the tenacity and organisational skills, yet Smithy had the charisma and the public acclaim. In 1932, Kingsford Smith received a knighthood for his services to flying, Ulm did not.Business setbacks and dramas followed, as Ulm tried to develop the embryonic Australian airline industry. ANA fought hard against the young Qantas, already an establishment favourite, but a catastrophic crash on the airline's regular route from Sydney to Melbourne and the increasing bite of the Great Depression forced ANA's bankruptcy in 1933. Desperate to drum up publicity for a new airline venture, Ulm's final flight was meant to demonstrate the potential for a regular trans-Pacific passenger service. Somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii his plane, Stella Australis, disappeared. No trace of the plane or crew were ever found.In the years since his death, attention has focused more and more on Smithy, leaving Ulm neglected and overshadowed. This biography will attempt to rectify that, showing that Ulm was at least Smithy's equal as a flyer, and in many ways his superior as a visionary, as an organiser and as a businessman. His untimely death robbed Australia of a huge talent.

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Book SynopsisThis profusely illustrated book offers a comprehensive look at the social and cultural history of Aborigines from the origins to the present.Trade Review'An ideal resource for secondary students looking at indigenous cultures … I found it fascinating' - School Library AssociationTable of Contents1. The Last Continent; 2. A Culture Celebrating Life; 3. An Empty Land? 4. We Have Survived!

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Book SynopsisPaige West's searing study of Papua New Guinea reveals how a range of actors produce and reinforce inequalities in today's globalized world. She shows how racist rhetorics of representation underlie all uneven patterns of development and seeks a more robust understanding of the ideological work that capital requires for constant regeneration.Trade ReviewThis is a brilliant work with theoretical force and wide-ranging epistemological and ethical implications. Rigorously researched and historically grounded, West documents how representational strategies - discursive, semiotic, and visual - in relation to Papua New Guinea underpin the enduring boundary between the nature/culture divide, which produces destructive material effects while entrenching white supremacy and capitalism in the globalized world of the twenty-first century. Rich, lucid, and incisive, Dispossession and the Environment is a must-read for scholars in anthropology, environmental studies, Pacific studies, and beyond. -- J. Kehaulani Kauanui, professor of anthropology and American studies, Wesleyan University Provocative and absorbing, Dispossession and the Environment clarifies the roles that ideologies of 'nature' and 'culture' play in the production of global inequalities. West demonstrates how indigenous philosophy and political ecology can offer new grounds for theorizing worlds remade by dispossession. A much-needed intervention in current debates over ontology and epistemology, this is decolonial anthropology at its best. -- Ty P. Kawika Tengan, author of Native Men Remade: Gender and Nation in Contemporary Hawai'i How do we ensure that anthropology does not set the stage for dispossession? This brilliant, powerful collection of essays by Paige West demonstrates the profoundly material effects of disabling colonial and anthropological representations of Melanesia. Papua New Guinean lives and environments matter, and hardly just for the benefit of capitalists, tourists, conservationists, and social scientists. -- Katerina Teaiwa, author of Consuming Ocean Island: Stories of People and Phosphate from Banaba In this intellectually groundbreaking study of uneven development, Paige West demonstrates how non-material representations of people and place in Papua New Guinea have profound material consequences. Her masterful analysis examines accumulation by dispossession through representational strategies that allow surfers, development experts, and other expatriates to dispossess Papua New Guineans of both their culture and their environment. A unique and powerful contribution to political ecology and environmental studies. -- Jerry Jacka, author of Alchemy in the Rain Forest: Politics, Ecology, and Resilience in a New Guinea Mining Area In this wide-ranging, passionately argued and beautifully written book, West examines the discursive, semiotic and visual strategies that work to dispossess Papua New Guineans of their land, livelihoods and sovereignty. Through lively case studies, she demonstrates not only the depth of ethnographic insight that only results from long-term engagement with communities, but also makes important connections between diverse sets of theory. This book is an important reminder of what anthropology can, and should, be. -- Joshua A. Bell, curator of globalization, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution Drawing from the author's two decades of research experience in Papua New Guinea, this engaging, lively, and lucid manuscript discusses how structural inequalities are produced, lived, and reinforced in today's globalized world. -- Molly Doane, author of Stealing Shining Rivers: Agrarian Conflict, Market Logic, and Conservation in a Mexican ForestTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Map of the Island of New Guinea Introduction 1. "Such a Site for Play, This Edge": Tourism and Modernist Fantasy 2. "We Are Here to Build Your Capacity": Development as a Vehicle for Accumulation and Dispossession 3. Discovering the Already Known: Tree Kangaroos, Explorer Imaginings, and Indigenous Articulations 4. Indigenous Theories of Accumulation, Dispossession, Possession, and Sovereignty Afterword. Birdsongs: In Memory of Neil Smith (1954-2012) Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhat happened when people went mad in the fledgling colony of New South Wales? In this important new history of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, we find out through the correspondence of tireless colonial secretaries, the brazen language of lawyers and judges and firebrand politicians, and heartbreaking letters from siblings, parents and friends. We also hear from the mad themselves. Class, gender and race became irrelevant as illness, chaos and delusion afflicted convicts exiled from their homes and living under the weight of imperial justice; ex-convicts and small settlers as they grappled with the country they had taken from its Indigenous inhabitants, as well as officers, officials and wealthy colonists who sought to guide the course of European history in Australia.This not a history of the miserable institutions built for the mentally ill, or those living within them, or the people in charge of the asylums. These stories of madness are woven together into a narrative about freedom and possibilities, and collapse and unravelling. The book looks at people at the edge of the world finding themselves at the edge of sanity, and is about their strategies for survival. This is a new story of colonial Australia, cast as neither a grim and fatal shore nor an antipodean paradise, but a place where the full range of humanity wrestled with the challenges of colonisation. The first book-length history of madness at the beginning ofEuropean Australia Original and evocative, it grapples seriously with the place ofmadness in Australia’s convict history The book’s intimate descriptions of madness and the response to itgive a unique picture of life in the early colony through the lens ofmental illness Awareness of mental health continues to rise globally. This bookexplores efforts to understand and to treat madness before asylums,hospitals and doctors made madness a medical problem. Meticulously researched by James Dunk, a young emerginghistorian of medicine and colonialism Table of Contents Introduction 1.There is a Wildness 2.The Liabilities of the Sea 3.Madness and Malingering 4.The ‘Lunatic Asylum’ 5.The Politics of a Penal Colony 6.Darling’s Suicides 7.After the Rebellion 8.Wrongful Confinement and Irresponsible Power Conclusion

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Book SynopsisFollowing the devastating raids on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, lightning advances by Japanese forces throughout the Pacific and the Far East, and a desperate battle by the Allied command in the Dutch East Indies, it became evident that an attack on Australia was more a matter of when and not if.On February 19, just eleven weeks after the attacks on Pearl Harbor and two weeks after the fall of Singapore, the same Japanese battle group that had attacked Hawaii was ordered to attack the ill-prepared and under-defended Australian port of Darwin.Publishing 75 years after this little-known yet devastating attack, this fully illustrated study details what happened on that dramatic day in 1942 with the help of contemporary photographs, maps, and profiles of the commanders and machines involved in the assault.Table of ContentsOrigins of the campaign Chronology Opposing commanders Opposing armies Orders of battle Opposing plans The campaign Aftermath The battlefields today Further reading Index

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Northern California Book Award for Nonfiction "Both a serious work of history…and a marvelously readable dramatic narrative." —San Francisco ChronicleTrade Review"An entertaining, impressively researched chronicle of the tense period between the bombing of Pearl Harbor and American victory at the battle of Midway." -- Kirkus"Revealing and poignant, Toll’s latest deftly navigates the rough waters of the Pacific struggle with flying colors." -- Publishers Weekly"Excellent. The research is thorough, the writing clear, and the narrative flow exemplary…It is difficult to think of a recent book on this subject that is of such consistently outstanding value." -- Roland Green - Booklist (starred review)"Well documented—albeit from previously published materials—and well written. Experienced World War II history buffs may bypass if they feel no need to read another retelling of this phase of the Pacific War, but nonspecialists and general readers will want to consider it." -- Library Journal"Toll’s book does a good job of capturing strategy, tactics, weaponry and, especially, people, on the Japanese side as well as the American…You won’t set [Pacific Crucible] aside." -- Harry Levins - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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Book SynopsisWeeping Waters details the current debate regarding the Treaty of Waitangi and a constitution for Aotearoa New Zealand.

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Book SynopsisRenowned and much-loved travel writer Jan Morris turns her eye to Sydney: ''not the best of the cities the British Empire created ... but the most hyperbolic, the youngest at heart, the shiniest.'' Sydney takes us on the city''s journey from penal colony to world-class metropolis, as lively and charming as the city it describes. With characteristic exuberance and sparkling prose, Jan Morris guides us through the history, people and geography of a fascinating and colourful city. Jan Morris''s collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Venice, Hong Kong, Spain, Manhattan ''45, A Writer''s World and the Pax Britannica Trilogy. Hav, her novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. ''Sydney should be flattered. A great portrait painter has chosen it for her recent subject . . . Few writers - a handful of novelists apart - have got so far under the city'

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Book SynopsisThe stories behind Australia''s many, many strange, inappropriate and downright hilarious place names.From Dismal Swamp to Useless Loop, Intercourse Island to Dead Mans Gully, Mount Buggery to Nowhere Else, Australia has some of the strangest, funniest, weirdest and most out-of-place names going - now described and explained in one humorous and fascinating book.Australia''s vast spaces and irreverent, larrikin history have given us some of the best place names in the world. Ranging from the less than positive (Linger and Die Hill, NSW), to the indelicate (Scented Knob, WA), the idiotic (Eggs and Bacon Bay, TAS) to the inappropriate and the just plain fascinating, MOUNT BUGGERY TO NOWHERE ELSE is a toponymical journey through this nation of weird and wonderful places.''A hilarious and unusual tour of Australia and its history.'' DAILY TELEGRAPHTrade ReviewA hilarious and unusual tour of Australia and its history -- Troy Lennon * The Daily Telegraph *Overall though, this is a fun, sometimes shocking... but mostly quite amusing foray into Australian place names, and on the side, Australian history. -- Bruce Gargoyle * The Bookshelf Gargoyle *

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Book SynopsisThis is the story of Operation Jericho, the spectacular prison break staged by an elite group of British, Australian and New Zealand bomber pilots, who flew a daring low-level mission to blow holes in the walls of Amiens jail and free French Resistance prisoners under the sentence of death during World War II. With D-Day looming, early 1944 was a time of massive intelligence activity across northern France, and many résistants were being captured and imprisoned by the Germans. Among the jails full of French agents was Amiens, where hundreds awaited likely execution for their activities. To repay their debt of honour, MI6 requested an air raid with a seemingly impossible brief: to simultaneously blow holes in the prison walls, free as many men and women as possible while minimizing casualties, and kill German guards in their quarters. The crews would have to fly their bomb-run at an altitude of just 20ft. Despite the huge difficulties, the RAF decided that the low-Trade Review...it includes some marvellous 3D diagrams clearly showing the flightpaths of the various aircraft over the prison site. -- Robin Buckland * Military Model Scene *The book is organised into four chapters with an introduction, the origins, the plan, and the raid along with an aftermath section, a bibliography, and a short index. The book is well illustrated throughout with a great selection of photographs along with superb artwork. There are three double page artworks that really leap off the pages. The diagrams showing the various attack axis is also noteworthy. And the abundance of first person accounts from the aircrew and prisoners alike is commendable. I did however find one editing error on the last page where a footnote says “VHS” instead of “VHF” for a frequency reference. This in no way detracts from the book and is a simple mistake to make. This is one of best and most affordable books out there on this somewhat controversial raid. RAMROD 564 as it was known then is one of the most famous low level bombing raids of World War Two and also one of the most controversial due to the mystery behind why it was actually ordered. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Mosquito operations, the French Resistance, or as a collector of the RAID Osprey series. -- Todd Shughart * Aviation News Magazine *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Target for Today Origins: The Aircraft - No.2 (Lighter Bomber) Group The Plan: The Reason Why - Group Captain Percy Charles Pickard The Raid: Take-off - The Attack - Aftermath in Amiens - The Deaths of Pickard and Broadley Aftermath Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA beautiful and sweeping historical novel that takes the reader from the west coast of New Zealand, to Scotland and Melbourne in the 1870s'Its portrayal of life in a gold-rush town is vivid, and Rose's story is absorbing' The Times'Worth reading for its occasional streaks of brilliance and insight' Telegraph India'A epic read . . . a beautifully written, evocative novel that I anticipate you reading and re-reading for years to come' Woman's Way'A gripping page-turner' Woman 1866. Will Stewart is one of many who have left their old lives behind to seek their fortunes in New Zealand's last great gold rush. The conditions are hostile and the outlook bleak, but he must push on in his uncertain search for the elusive buried treasure.Rose is about to arrive on the shores of South Island when a storm hits and her ship is wrecked. Just when all seems lost she is snatched from the jaws of death by Will, who risks his life to save her. Drawn together by circumstance, they stay together by choice and for a while it seems that their stars have finally aligned.But after a terrible misunderstanding they are cruelly separated, and their new-found happiness is shattered. As Will chases Rose across oceans and continents, he must come to terms with the possibility that he might never see her again. And if he does, he will have to face the man who took her . . .Readers love Alchemy and Rose:'A real rollercoaster of emotions' 5* reader review'One of her best yet' 5* reader review'Both gripping and romantic (quite a combination!) and keeps you hooked right up to the end' 5* reader review'One of those books that you need to find out what happened, but at the same time you don't want it to finish' 5* reader review'Couldn't put it down, a real page turner' 5* reader reviewTrade ReviewIts portrayal of life in a gold-rush town is vivid, and Rose's story is absorbing * The Times *Maine reworks the conventions of historical romance in a narrative that regularly undercuts expectations of what is to come * The Sunday Times (Culture) *A gripping page-turner * Woman Magazine *Worth reading for its occasional streaks of brilliance and insight * Telegraph India *This feels like an epic read, and it is a beautifully written, evocative novel that I anticipate you reading and re-reading for years to come * Woman's Way *

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Book Synopsis‘How is it our minds are not satisfied? What means this whispering in the bottom of our hearts?’ Listening to the whispering in his own heart, Henry Reynolds was led into the lives of remarkable and largely forgotten white humanitarians who followed their consciences and challenged the prevailing attitudes to Indigenous people. His now-classic book This Whispering in Our Hearts constructed an alternative history of Australia through the eyes of those who felt disquiet and disgust at the brutality of dispossession. These men and women fought for justice for Indigenous people even when doing so left them isolated and criticised by their fellow whites. The unease of these humanitarians about the morality of white settlement has not dissipated and their legacy informs current debates about reconciliation between black and white Australia. Revisiting this history, in this new edition Reynolds brings fresh perspectives to issues we grapple with still. Those who argue for justice, reparation, recognition and a treaty will find themselves in solidarity with those who went before. But this powerful book shows how much remains to be done to settle the whispering in our hearts. An updated edition of a classic text, now includes reflections on native title, the apology, international conventions, reparations, recognition and the treaty.Trade Review"No other historian can match Henry Reynolds’ impact on Australians’ understanding of their frontier history and its troubled inheritance." —Mark McKenna

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Book SynopsisFrom 1942-1945 the Allies' war in the Southwest Pacific was effectively a bilateral coalition between the United States and Australia under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. By charting the evolution of the military effectiveness of the US-Australian alliance, MacArthur's Coalition puts the relationship between the US and Australia at the centre of the war against Japan.Trade ReviewMacArthur’s Coalition contains new insights into the military-to-military relationship between the United States and Australia during the Second World War. The author carefully examines the coalition from its ad hoc origins to its high point of cooperation and (sometimes) mutual respect in 1942–1943, into its decline in 1944–1945."" - Peter Williams, author of The Kokoda Campaign 1942: Myth and Reality""Drawing upon a wide range of primary and secondary sources, Dean explores the long-neglected topic of Australian-American military cooperation during World War II. This highly original and superb book has much to say not only about how military strategy was created and executed but also about the important topic of alliance politics under the pressures of wartime conditions."" - Kevin C. Holzimmer, author of General Walter Krueger: Unsung Hero of the Pacific War""Peter Dean’s standout study of coalition warfare in the Southwest Pacific provides intriguing new perspectives on Australia's outsize contributions to MacArthur’s campaigns. Dean’s fascinating multilevel analysis, anchored in extensive research across multiple archives, emphasizes the critical interplay of personalities from strategic through tactical echelons as well as the importance of intercultural communications as allies adapted to differing command cultures and military doctrines. This fresh reassessment of coalition leadership depicts MacArthur and his cohorts in the sweeping fashion they deserve."" - Edward J. Drea, author of Japan’s Imperial Army: Its Rise and Fall, 1853–1945""MacArthur’s Coalition provides a deeply researched, innovative, and authoritative study of how the United States and Australia fought together to achieve victory in the Second World War. The book holds important lessons for the conduct of present-day coalition operations—a key feature of modern warfare."" - David Horner, emeritus professor, Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University""MacArthur’s Coalition is a superb work enormously extending our understanding of that controversial figure and those who served with him. It is deeply researched, vigorously narrated, and admirably evenhanded. It casts brilliant illumination over the full span of relationships from MacArthur and the heights of Australian political and military leadership down to the sharp edge where Australians and Americans confronted a formidable enemy."" - Richard B. Frank, author of Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire

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Book SynopsisReflecting in 1769 on the manners and customs of the South Sea islands, Joseph Banks remarked that ‘in every expedient for taking fish they are vastly ingenious.’ Hence the title of this book on Pacific material culture, past and present, with broad themes of origins, the movement of peoples and the development of their technologies.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Early Maori disc pendants; Gourd artefacts from the Kohika lake village; Cooking with pots -- again; Metal Pa Kahawai; A cache of fishhooks from Serendipity Cave; Horticultural site complexes on stony soils of the eastern North Island; Arthur of HMS Adventure and Veryan, Cornwall; Me'a lalanga and the category Koloa; Ancestral Polynesian fishing gear; Reading Pacific pots; The rise of the Saudeleur; A study of gorges from the Gogna-Cove Beach Site, Guam; The role of fishing lure shanks for the past people of Pohnpei; Shell fishhooks of the Lapita cultural complex; The material culture of Makira; Shaft-hole stone implements of New Britain; Pottery styles at Wanelek, Papua New Guinea; Still vastly ingenious? Globalisation and the collecting of Pacific material cultures.

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Book SynopsisGötz Aly pens a forgotten chapter in the history of imperialism as the story of a single object: a majestic fifteen-meter boat, looted from Papua New Guinea during a German colonial expedition and since displayed in Berlin museums. Aly restores attention to colonial conquests and lays bare the vexed nature of ethnological appropriation.Trade ReviewA major contribution to the debate over whether and how to repatriate the countless objects and artworks acquired through dubious means that reside in the museums of former colonial powers…As an indictment of German colonial policies and leading scholars’ complicity in them, the book is unsparing and convincing. -- Joshua Keating * Washington Post *In his brief, powerful book, Aly tells a sweeping history of colonial exploitation by focusing on the story of the journey of a single boat from its birthplace in the 1890s on the island of Luf in the Bismarck Archipelago to Berlin’s Ethnologisches (Ethnological) Museum in 1903. Through the Luf Boat, now a centerpiece of the controversial new Humboldt Forum, Aly demonstrates the intimate relationship between the devastation wrought by markets and militaries and the curators who swooped in to ‘rescue’ the remnants of supposedly dying cultures. -- Erin L. Thompson * Los Angeles Review of Books *The book is not just about museum politics and shifting postcolonial meanings of non-western objects. Museum collections are a metaphor. They stand for a larger, unresolved debate about the moral contradictions facing postcolonial western societies whose contemporary prosperity is rooted in the pillaging of the peoples and cultures they once ruled. If the ethos of the moment stands on injustice, The Magnificent Boat makes an excellent contribution that exposes and reminds us of it. -- David Lipset * Times Literary Supplement *Aly’s detailed account follows German ships as they arrive at Luf Island to punish the local population for an earlier fight with Germans, burning homes and forests, stealing food and clearing land for the coconut plantations where the remaining islanders were enslaved…He draws widely from official documents and accounts where Germans wrote openly about violence in the South Seas. -- David D’Arcy * The Art Newspaper *Concise and convincing, this damning account reveals the painful legacy of colonialism. * Publishers Weekly *Well written and full of disturbing detail—a new and much-needed perspective on an iconic museum object. -- Bénédicte Savoy, author of Africa’s Struggle for Its Art: History of a Postcolonial DefeatA lot has been written recently about looted art, but there’s been less talk about much greater colonial crimes. Aly shows that there’s no separating the two. -- Jörg Häntzschel * Süddeutsche Zeitung *Aly’s entertainingly written and comprehensively researched study shows that the Luf Boat was by no means fairly acquired by the German Reich. -- Andreas Kilb * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung *Anyone who sees the so-called Luf Boat in the future will immediately have in mind the murderous cruelty of the Germans. -- Felix Bohr, Ulrike Knöfel, and Elke Schmitter * Der Spiegel *This is a harrowing book, in which readers will learn more about the everyday brutality of colonialism than in any postcolonial studies tract. -- Sebastian Preuss * Weltkunst Online *

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Book SynopsisOffers for the first time a critical, wide-ranging geographical and temporal look at the varieties of whale histories in the Pacific. The contributors, from around the Pacific, present a wealth of fascinating stories while breaking new methodological ground in environmental history, women’s history, animal studies, and Indigenous ontologies.

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Book SynopsisASALH 2023 Book Prize WinnerA lively living history of anti-colonialist movements across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian OceansOceania is a vast sea of islands, large scale political struggles and immensely significant historical phenomena. Pasifika Black is a compelling history of understudied anti-colonial movements in this region, exploring how indigenous Oceanic activists intentionally forged international connections with the African world in their fights for liberation.Drawing from research conducted across Fiji, Australia, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Britain, and the United States, Quito Swan shows how liberation struggles in Oceania actively engaged Black internationalism in their diverse battles against colonial rule. Pasifika Black features as its protagonists Oceania''s many playwrights, organizers, religious leaders, scholars, Black Power advocates, musicians, environmental justice activists, feminists, and revolutionTrade ReviewPasifika Black is an exceptionally brilliant, well-researched, and powerful account of how Black and Brown freedom fighters mobilized across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans to challenge racism, colonialism, and white supremacy. It represents the very best of the new scholarship on Black internationalism. -- Keisha N. Blain, co-editor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Four Hundred Souls and author of Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to AmericaPasifika Black advances and problematizes scholarly conceptions of the ‘Black Pacific’ and ‘Afro-Asian solidarity,’ as well as highlighting histories that have not been included in dominant historical examinations of African Diaspora radicalism and twentieth-century Black internationalist movements. This is a groundbreaking contribution. -- Robeson Taj Frazier, University of Southern CaliforniaPasifika Black enriches an emerging literature tracing underexplored strands of black internationalism in the twentieth century. Swan demonstrates that black Pacific activists actively built solidarity with other African Diaspora subjects in the 1960s and 70s, even as Pan Africanists and internationalists elsewhere focused on struggles in Southern Africa and other more visible locales. In Pasifika Black we learn that political actors in often-overlooked corners of the African Diaspora bolstered local freedom quests and forged international linkages through radical reappropriations of black identity. Swan’s impressive scope and multidisciplinary approach open new vistas on the politics of global liberation. -- Russell Rickford, author of We Are an African People: Independent Education, Black Power, and the Radical Imagination

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Book Synopsis- Private Sidney Phillips- First Lieutenant Austin Shofner- Ensign Vernon Micheel- Private Eugene Sledge- Sergeant John BasiloneThrough the eyes of these five fearless and devoted men, Hugh Ambrose tells the epic story of the war in the Pacific. It is an intimate, personal history of a brutal, unforgiving conflict.Trade ReviewA brutal account . . . for those who want more of the nightmare of those foxholes after ten hours of The Pacific, this book is for you * * The Times * *Extremely good . . . he lets his soldiers tell the story. Through those young men we are given an uncompromising picture of the war, which, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, most Americans believed to be their most important engagement. The TV series might offer us a glimpse of that distant conflict in the Pacific. Hugh Ambrose's book gives us the greatest generation in the round * * Scotsman * *A compelling book which affords Pacific veterans the testament they deserve -- Julian Fleming * * Sunday Business Post * *

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Book SynopsisThe incredible true story of one of the most extraordinary and inspirational prison breaks in Australian history.New York, 1874. Members of the Clan-na-Gael - agitators for Irish freedom from the English yoke - hatch a daring plan to free six Irish political prisoners from the most remote prison in the British Empire, Fremantle Prison in Western Australia. Under the guise of a whale hunt, Captain Anthony sets sail on the Catalpa to rescue the men from the stone walls of this hell on Earth known to the inmates as a ''living tomb''. What follows is one of history''s most stirring sagas that splices Irish, American, British and Australian history together in its climactic moment.For Ireland, who had suffered English occupation for 700 years, a successful escape was an inspirational call to arms. For America, it was a chance to slap back at Britain for their support of the South in the Civil War; for England, a humiliation. And for a young Australia,Trade ReviewGripping * Irish Independent *

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Book SynopsisE. B. Sledge was born in Mobile, Alabama. In late 1943 he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, and was then sent to the Pacific where he fought at Peleliu and Okinawa. After returning from the war he immediately began working on a book based on the notes he had taken while posted in the Pacific theatre, which became With the Old Breed. Sledge joined the biology faculty of Alabama College, where he taught until his retirement. Sledge died on March 3rd, 2001.Trade ReviewOf all the books about the ground war in the Pacific, [With the Old Breed] is the closest to a masterpiece * The New York Review of Books *One of the most arresting documents in war literature. -- John KeeganEugene Sledge became more than a legend with his memoir, With The Old Breed. He became a chronicler, a historian, a storyteller who turns the extremes of the war in the Pacific - the terror, the camaraderie, the banal and the extraordinary - into terms we mortals can grasp. -- Tom HanksIn all the literature on the Second World War, there is not a more honest, realistic or moving memoir than Eugene Sledge's. This is the real deal, the real war: unvarnished, brutal, without a shred of sentimentality or false patriotism, a profound primer on what it actually was like to be in that war. It is a classic that will outlive all the armchair generals' safe accounts of--not the "good war"--but the worst war ever. -- Ken Burn

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Book SynopsisThroughout the first year of the war in the Pacific during World War II the USAAF was relatively ineffective against ships. Indeed, warships in particular proved to be too elusive for conventional medium-level bombing. High-level attacks wasted bombs, and torpedo attacks required extensive training. But as 1942 closed, the Fifth Air Force developed new weapons and new tactics that were not just effective, they were deadly. A maintenance officer assigned to a B-25 unit found a way to fill the bombardier's position with four 0.50-cal machine guns and strap an additional four 0.50s to the sides of the bomber, firing forward. Additionally, skip-bombing was developed. This called for mast-top height approaches flying the length of the target ship. If the bombs missed the target, they exploded in the water close enough to crush the sides. The technique worked perfectly when paired with strafe B-25s. Over the first two months of 1943, squadrons perfected these tactics. Then, in early March,Table of ContentsIntroduction Chronology Design and Development Technical Specifications The Strategic Situation The Combatants Combat Statistics and Analysis Aftermath Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisThere are few Aboriginal icons in white Australian history. From the explorer to the pioneer, the swagman to the drover’s wife, Europeans predominate. Perhaps the only exception is the redoubtable tracker who, with skills passed down by generation after generation for over 65,000 years, read the signs and traced the movement of people across the land.The saviour of many and cursed by the wayward, trackers live in the collective memory as one of the few examples where Aboriginal people’s skills were sought after in colonial society. In New South Wales alone, thousands of Aboriginal men and a smaller number of women toiled for the authorities post-1862, tracking the lost and confused, seeking out the thieves and their ill-gotten booty and bringing criminals to justice.More often than not the role of tracker went unacknowledged. Little about the complexity and diversity of their work is known, how it grew out of traditional society and was sustained by the vast family networks of Aboriginal families that endure to this day. Pathfinders brings the work of trackers to the forefront of New South Wales law enforcement history, ensuring their contribution is properly acknowledged.Trade Review‘The word tracker conjures images of the legendary Aboriginal bush experts responsible for bringing criminals to justice and finding people lost in the wild. Michael Bennett’s new book is a very welcome addition. The book charts an important though largely overlooked area of the country’s history. Aboriginal trackers hold a mythical yet obscure presence in the history of the continent. Bennett weaves back into the nation’s historical narrative these Aboriginal heroes and heroines.’ — Professor John Maynard

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Book SynopsisCal Flyn was very proud when she discovered that her ancestor, Angus McMillan, had been a pioneer of colonial Australia. However, when she dug deeper, she began to question her pride. McMillan had not only cut tracks through the bush, but played a dark role in Australia''s bloody history.In 1837 Angus McMillan left the Scottish Highlands for the other side of the world. Cutting paths through the Australian frontier, he became a feted pioneer, to be forever mythologised in status and landmarks. He was also Cal Flyn's great-great-great-uncle. Inspired by his fame, Flyn followed in his footsteps to Australia, where she would face horrifying family secrets.Blending memoir, history and travel,Thicker Than Water' evokes the startlingly beautiful wilderness of the Highlands, the desolate bush of Victoria and the reverberations on one from the other. A tale of blood and bloodlines, it is a powerful, personal journey into dark family history, grief and guilt.Trade ReviewSummer Reads of 2016, GuardianBooks of the Year 2016, The Times ‘Stunning. ‘Thicker Than Water’ is a thrilling debut, a true story that reads like a classy, compelling fiction’ The Times ‘A moving and impressive debut’ Telegraph ‘Deftly captures the looking-glass world of the antipodean landscape … Her account is vivid with a sense of strangeness … ‘Thicker Than Water’ is, to borrow a word Australians use when dealing with anything unsettling, a “confronting” book’ Guardian ‘Intelligently and evocatively written’ Allan Massie, Scotsman 'A searing tale of adventure and (self) discovery that shows the past is nearer than we think. Flyn is a writer with a gimlet eye and a big heart' Ben Rawlence ‘Thicker Than Water combines memoir, history, travelogue and lyrical nature writing; a true story that reads like classy, page-turning fiction’ Melanie Read, The Times ‘An unflinchingly honest, profoundly moving memoir’ Herald

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Book SynopsisRobert Hughes, art critic of Time magazine and twice winner of the American College Art Association's F. J. Mather Award for distinguished criticism, is author of The Shock of the New, and of Heaven and Hell in Western Art. He is also author of the acclaimed Nothing if Not Critical, a work on Frank Auerbach; Barcelona, and Culture of Complaint, essays on the fraying of America. Robert Hughes died in August 2012.Trade ReviewA unique phantasmagoria of crime and punishment, which combines the shadowy terrors of Goya with the tumescent life of Dickens * Peter Ackroyd, The Times *A triumph of research, passion and fine writing. I found it an extraordinary and compelling book to read, one of fantastic scope and imagination; truly a tour de force * William Shawcross *Riveting * The Book Magazine *With its mood and stature...The Fatal Shore is well on its way to becoming the standard opus on the convict years * Sydney Sunday Telegraph *An enthralling account of the convict settlement of Australia, thoroughly researched and excellently written, brimming over with rare and pungent characters, and tales of pathos, bravery, and horror * Peter Matthiessen *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"In a new book . . . this most experienced and rational scientist states what so many other researchers privately fear but cannot publicly say - that the Arctic is approaching a death spiral which may see the entire remaining summer ice cover collapse in the near future." - John Vidal, The Guardian "Nonscientists who read his astonishing and hair-raising A Farewell to Ice will agree that the interludes of autobiography it contains are engrossing, entertaining and, when one submarine suffers an onboard explosion and fire while under the ice, harrowing. Any reader should find the science of sea-ice creation and the implications for us all of its loss - explored and explained here with clarity and style - beautiful, compelling and terrifying." - Horatio Clare, The Observer "Not only is A Farewell to Ice a clear and engaging account of how the physics and chemistry of ice work, but it also offers what may be the best chapter-length, reader-friendly account of the greenhouse effect available to date. . . . Wadhams's particular combination - of scientific passion, a lyrical sense of wonder at the natural world, an ability to pluck clear analogies from the air, and outspoken analysis of consumer-capitalist politics - marks out A Farewell to Ice as essential reading." - John Burnside, New Statesman "Peter Wadhams brings huge expertise to his subject - and he is an excellent writer. He explains why the fate of Arctic ice is crucial for the world's climate and clarifies the controversies and complexities that confront scientists and policymakers. A fascinating book." - Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, President of the Royal Society 2005-10 "Peter Wadhams has written a passionate, authoritative overview of the role of ice in our climate system, past, present and, scarily, the future." - Carl Wunsch, Professor Emeritus of Physical Oceanography, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Though the science behind global climate change can be made simple, its scientific complexities go a long way toward putting the impending catastrophe into context. A Farewell to Ice does an excellent job of laying out and explaining these complexities in all of their nuance... an excellent motivator and wake-up call..." --Foreword Reviews "For almost five decades, Peter Wadhams has been studying the way the ice at both poles has been changing. What he reveals in A Farewell to Ice is a chilling view of how much influence humankind has had on the steady disappearance of polar ice and what that will mean for all living things on the planet as it continues to vanish." --Shelf AwarenessTable of ContentsList of Plates List of Figures Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: A blue Arctic 2. Ice, the magic crystal 3. A brief history of ice on planet Earth 4. The modern cycle of ice ages 5. The greenhouse effect 6. Sea ice meltback begins 7. The future of Arctic sea ice - the death spiral 8. The accelerating effects of Arctic feedbacks 9. Arctic methane, a catastrophe in the making 10. Strange weather 11. The secret life of chimneys 12. What's happening to the Antarctic? 13. The state of the planet 14. A call to arms References Index

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Book SynopsisIn this Very Short Introduction Kenneth Morgan provides a wide-ranging and thematic introduction to modern Australia. He examines the main features of its history, geography, and culture since the beginning of the white settlement in New South Wales in 1788. Drawing attention to the distinctive features of Australian life he places contemporary developments in a historical perspective, highlighting the importance of Australia''s indigenous culture and making connections between Australia and the wider word. Balancing the successful growth of Australian institutions and democratic traditions, he considers the struggles that occurred in the making of modern Australia. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of Contents1. The Antipodes ; 2. Shaping the Continent ; 3. Governing Australia ; 4. Body and Soul ; 5. Australia and the World ; Further reading

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Book SynopsisAn account of relations between the sexes and the role of myth in the transition between unconscious fantasy and cultural forms, based on studies of the mythologies of the Gimi, from the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

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Book SynopsisAn account of relations between the sexes and the role of myth in the transition between unconscious fantasy and cultural forms, based on studies of the mythologies of the Gimi, from the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

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