Australia's Empire Hardcover

Schreuder, Deryck M.

This is the first major collaborative reappraisal of Australia's experience of empire since the end of the British Empire itself. The volume examines the meaning and importance of empire in Australia across a broad spectrum of historical issues-ranging from the disinheritance of the Aborigines to the foundations of a new democratic state. The overriding theme is the distinctive Australian perspective on empire. The country's adherence to imperial ideals and aspirations involved not merely the building of a 'new Britannia' but also the forging of a distinctive new culture and society. It was Australian interests and aspirations which ultimately shaped 'Australia's Empire'. While modern Australians have often played down the significance of their British imperial past, the contributors to this book argue that the legacies of empire continue to influence the temper and texture of Australian society today.

0199273731

9780199273737

English

Oxford University Press

15 April 2008

440

Em Professor Deryck M Schreuder (D Phil, Oxon: FAHA FRHS LL D) is currently Chair of the Australian Universities' Quality Agency and previously Vice Chancellor of two Australian universities, President of the Australian Vice Chancellors' Committee, and President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Australian Historical Association. An Oxford Rhodes Scholar, he was a founding Professor in History at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario and 4th Challis Professor of History in The University of Sydney. He has published widely in British imperial and colonial studies.

Deryck M. Schreuder

Stuart Ward

a very fine collection of essays which does a great deal to further our understanding of the central place of the Empire in Australia's history. It deserves to be widely read and debated. * Christopher Waters, Labour History * Deryck Schreuder and Stuart Ward, are both recognised authorities on the subject, and both have done work beyond Australia that enables them to appreciate its distinctive characteristics. The contributors include leading historians who develop their topics with assurance...Together with the editorial introduction and epilogue, these make a persuasive case for bringing the imperial dimension back into Australian historiography * Stuart MacIntyre, The Australian Book Review * It is part of the unfashionability of the topic that nothing on quite this scale has been attempted since the 1930s. The editors have marshalled an impressive array of talent... [to produce] a fine volume * Jim Davidson, The Age Newspaper * This is an important book. It will be seen by many readers as challenging or stimulating...To my knowledge this theme, so wide in its span, has not previously been attempted with such comprehensiveness * Geoffrey Blainey, The Australian Newspaper * ...a timely re-evaluation of the influences that helped shape modern-day Australia...a fascinating companion to the Oxford History of the Brritish Empire that should engage students and academics alike and all those interested in contemporary Australia and the shadow of its colonial past. * Lucy Popescu, Tribune * ... an impressive book, adventurous in conception, and packed with challenging essays, several verging on sheer brilliance. * The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs *