What do you think?
History of Australia
Written with young readers in mind, this lively, lucid account of Australia and its people begins with the geographic shaping of the continent millions of years ago and continues to the present day. Here is the fascinating story of a land inhabited since the Ice Ages by Aboriginal tribes, a land which remained undiscovered by the rest of the world until the birth of the industrial age, when European settlement reshaped it in political and social terms. Original sources are used to highlight episodes that will especially appeal to young we hear the voices of Aborigines bewildered by the advent of the Europeans, and of those who made the perilous journey across the world in sailing ships ... We share the weariness of explorers trudging towards a far horizon, and the elation of a lucky gold-digger ... We storm the heights at Gallipoli alongside the Anzacs, and realise what it must have been like to go hungry during the Great Depression, or to fight in the Jungles of New Guinea ... This history, a distinguished collaboration between Manning Clark and Meredith Hooper is lavishly decorated throughout in colour and black-and-white by Susanne Ferrier, whose illustrations perfectly complement the text and give the book an extra, vivid dimension of sheer visual enjoyment. History of Australia is a book to be shared, appreciated and enjoyed by all those eager to discover the story of this great new country.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Manning Clark
73 books13 followersBorn to a working-class Anglican priest and a mother from a well-off background, Charles Manning Hope Clark was a quiet, academically minded child who went to school in Melbourne, and excelled at literature, Greek, and Latin (as well as exhibiting a great love of cricket). Clark earned a scholarship to Oxford, where he studied from 1938, but returned to Australia in 1940 (he was exempt from serving in WWII due to mild epilepsy) and took up life as a highschool history teacher.
Growing up in a time of war, Clark flirted with a variety of political views, ultimately settling into moderate socialism - although always with a healthy separation from anything serious (he was seen by some as conservative, but tended to have more ties to left-wing historians and thinkers). During his middle years, Clark would be a subject of surveillance from Australia's intelligence forces, like many other intellectuals, for his perceived destabilising thoughts and writings. After the war, Clark - now married to the historian Dymphna Clark and gradually fathering six children - established himself as a lecturer in history at Melbourne University, moving to their Canberra branch which gradually became the separate Australian National University, where he would live most of his professional life.
Clark's first significant publication was "Select Documents in Australian History" (2 volumes, 1950-55) which provided a significant examination of primary sources of the birth and development of modern Australia. In 1956, he began serious research on a lengthy History of Australia, which rapidly expanded from his concept of a two-volume work to a series of six. Published between 1962 and 1987, the History is his major work, spanning Australia's early history through to its colonisation by the British in 1788, to the 1930s, where his story comes to an end. Throughout, Clark explores the relationships of Catholics, Protestants, and Enlightenment thinkers, the delicate balance of European values and the world of the Australian continent, and the tragedy of Australia's Indigenous population. The earned its acolytes and its detractors, for reasons both political and literary, and remains controversial in the 21st century.
In 1974, Clark formally retired from lecturing at the ANU, and retained the title of Emeritus Professor until his death. In his later years, Clark's disdain for the upper and upper middle classes of Anglo-Australia (which had caused a fractious relationship with his mother all his life) became more evident, particularly in his campaigning for Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, and his outrage when Whitlam was dismissed by the Queen's representative, the Governor-General of Australia, in 1975.
Manning Clark was awarded the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal in 1970, and was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1975. He was named Australian of the Year in 1980 and, in Australia's bicentenary year of 1988, his History of Australia was adapted by others (including Prime Minister Paul Keating's future speechwriter Don Watson) as a musical, which ran for a short period in Melbourne.
In his last years, Clark was seen as something of an Australian icon, with a recognisable image (a classic Aussie bush hat, a goatee, and a walking stick), and was routinely published in journals and newspapers around the country. His last volumes were not highly regarded by contemporary historians, especially in the patriotic years of the 1980s, both because he was seen as left-wing and because he was seen as an old man whose pessimism and repetition had overwhelmed his natural gifts. Others regarded Clark as an iconic figure who urged Australians to question and reconsider some of the longstanding myths of Anglo-Australian culture, a debate which would escalate rapidly in the decades after the Australian bicentenary and the author's death. In 1989 and 1990, Clark published two volumes of autobiography. H
Growing up in a time of war, Clark flirted with a variety of political views, ultimately settling into moderate socialism - although always with a healthy separation from anything serious (he was seen by some as conservative, but tended to have more ties to left-wing historians and thinkers). During his middle years, Clark would be a subject of surveillance from Australia's intelligence forces, like many other intellectuals, for his perceived destabilising thoughts and writings. After the war, Clark - now married to the historian Dymphna Clark and gradually fathering six children - established himself as a lecturer in history at Melbourne University, moving to their Canberra branch which gradually became the separate Australian National University, where he would live most of his professional life.
Clark's first significant publication was "Select Documents in Australian History" (2 volumes, 1950-55) which provided a significant examination of primary sources of the birth and development of modern Australia. In 1956, he began serious research on a lengthy History of Australia, which rapidly expanded from his concept of a two-volume work to a series of six. Published between 1962 and 1987, the History is his major work, spanning Australia's early history through to its colonisation by the British in 1788, to the 1930s, where his story comes to an end. Throughout, Clark explores the relationships of Catholics, Protestants, and Enlightenment thinkers, the delicate balance of European values and the world of the Australian continent, and the tragedy of Australia's Indigenous population. The earned its acolytes and its detractors, for reasons both political and literary, and remains controversial in the 21st century.
In 1974, Clark formally retired from lecturing at the ANU, and retained the title of Emeritus Professor until his death. In his later years, Clark's disdain for the upper and upper middle classes of Anglo-Australia (which had caused a fractious relationship with his mother all his life) became more evident, particularly in his campaigning for Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, and his outrage when Whitlam was dismissed by the Queen's representative, the Governor-General of Australia, in 1975.
Manning Clark was awarded the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal in 1970, and was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1975. He was named Australian of the Year in 1980 and, in Australia's bicentenary year of 1988, his History of Australia was adapted by others (including Prime Minister Paul Keating's future speechwriter Don Watson) as a musical, which ran for a short period in Melbourne.
In his last years, Clark was seen as something of an Australian icon, with a recognisable image (a classic Aussie bush hat, a goatee, and a walking stick), and was routinely published in journals and newspapers around the country. His last volumes were not highly regarded by contemporary historians, especially in the patriotic years of the 1980s, both because he was seen as left-wing and because he was seen as an old man whose pessimism and repetition had overwhelmed his natural gifts. Others regarded Clark as an iconic figure who urged Australians to question and reconsider some of the longstanding myths of Anglo-Australian culture, a debate which would escalate rapidly in the decades after the Australian bicentenary and the author's death. In 1989 and 1990, Clark published two volumes of autobiography. H
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 11, 2011
Why didn't I read this years ago?
January 8, 2016
I found all six volumes very accessible and, from my point of view, a page turner.
July 17, 2020
Very informative
Very tedious
Very glad when finished
Very tedious
Very glad when finished
April 18, 2020
This was unlike any other history book I've ever read and I loved it. I loved it because Clarke is a logophile like me and he showed off his love of words in this book which is an abridged version of his original volume of work. I also loved it because it was larger than life; it read like fiction and reminded me somewhat of Girt by David Hunt, although Clarke's history is more serious.
Clarke's focus or maybe Cathcart's (who wrote this abridged version) is on politics which again I loved because I like politics, but I also would have liked a little more on popular culture and its manifestations. There was some of that, and it was good, but I would have liked a little more.
History of Australia is really subjective and opinionated, but that doesn't detract at all from its authority.
One of my writing ambitions is to write an historical novel, so I read History of Australia for amusement, education and research. The best history book I've read so far.
Clarke's focus or maybe Cathcart's (who wrote this abridged version) is on politics which again I loved because I like politics, but I also would have liked a little more on popular culture and its manifestations. There was some of that, and it was good, but I would have liked a little more.
History of Australia is really subjective and opinionated, but that doesn't detract at all from its authority.
One of my writing ambitions is to write an historical novel, so I read History of Australia for amusement, education and research. The best history book I've read so far.
Read
February 15, 2009This is an abridgement of his original work in 6 volumes, so some of its faults may be the responsibility of Mr. Cathcart. Some paragraphs float untethered in the narrative, they retained scores of statistics and conclusions with no analysis to bind them together. On the other hand, Mr. Clark was clearly an embittered man who was unwilling to allow positive motivation to anyone, and could not even comment on the geometric street layout of a city without a negative comment.
April 8, 2012
Not having read the full set of Clark, I can't really comment about the accuracy of the abridgement, but the book itself reads very well, the the abridger has at least been very smooth in his work. And it's a great story...
December 29, 2010
In six abridged sections from Manning Clark's original epic six (6) volume "History of Australia" Michael Cathcart manages to condense and yet still bare the distinctive voice of the original.
November 26, 2012
haters going to hate
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews