Life in the cities

by Michael Cannon

This is the third and final volume of Cannon's series on colonial Australia's social and cultural life. It has chapters on the cities' growth, shape & street life; communications & new suburbs; science; public health; middle class lifestyles; working class lifestyles.

Genres: History, Australia

320 pages, Loose Leaf

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and detailed account of life in Australian cities in the 19th century. The research undertaken is impressive and the result is highly informative and surprisingly detailed. Lots of information that is sure to amuse, surprise and shock

[Luke Devenish · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treasure. This book and its companion volume, 'Life in the Country', stared at me from the New In Store shelves of a local second hand bookshop I frequent for at least TWO YEARS, before I finally bought them both. I was prompted to part with my hard earned only when a) I started a new fiction project for which research into 19th Century Aussie lives was needed, and b) the two volumes mysteriously vanished from the New in Store shelf. Considering how long they'd been there, 'New' was certainly stretching it, but I panicked. Of course I only discovered this when I went in specifically to buy them, their existence having long burned into my memory. The shop owner had no idea where they'd gone, but I had a sneaking suspicion no one had actually bought them. Well, they hadn't in two years, so why now? I was right. Both books turned up, separately shelved (just to add to the mystery) in dusty crannies. And thank God, too, because this one, at least, was bloody fantastic and gave me EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED: a wealth of period detail. The surprise was the humour. Michael Cannon writes with a wry style that had me chuckling in quite a few places at some of his wittier observations. Nice. Oh, and what's more, vivid. I knocked this off in only a few days.