
A Google user
This is a great addition to the library of the general reader. These truly are forgotten histories that Mark McKenna has brought back to life. They are important stories that enable the reader to gain a greater understanding of our shared history. Australia has managed to whitewash our history by only telling the shiny happy stories, but McKenna helps us to realise that the great achievements of Australia's colonial history could not have been achieved without brutility and, in some places, wholesale murder. McKenna writes in a style that is accessible to the general reader but that will probably irk some academic historians. Some may see this book as furthering the 'black armband' view of history, but let's face it, this country does have a shameful history. McKenna seems constrained by his obvious wanting to tell these important stories to the general reader, and by his need to keep the self-important academic community satisfied at the same time. He's not quite Blainey but, once he realises that academic historians are necessary but not actually as important as they think they are, he will go far.
1 person found this review helpful

Paul Mariager
An enthralling and revealing read. Reading this took me on an emotional roller-coaster, swinging this from wonder and admiration to disappointment and scorn. Some of the imperfections and ironies that litter the history and make up of Australia were revealed to me. I felt the power in acknowledging this and the understating an airbrushed version of Australian history benefits no one. I realise attitudes are deep-seated however: Indigenous v non-Indigenous; city v country, as I was reminded reading this. I feel Australia would be a better, more tolerant place, if its citizens had a broader and deeper understanding of our shared history. In the words of the author: "For any of us to develop a truly honest and informed historical consciousness in Australia requires a double-act: to hold both the violent dispossession of Indigenous Australians and the steady emergence of a society built on equality, democracy and freedom from racial discrimination in our imagination at the same time, and to do so hearing both the indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives." So please, give this a read and take it all in.
1 person found this review helpful