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Issue Details: First known date: 2015... 2015 The Story of Australia's People Volume 1: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

The vast continent of Australia was settled in two main streams, far apart in time and origin.

'The first came ashore some 50,000 years ago when the islands of Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea were one. The second began to arrive from Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. Each had to come to terms with the land they found, and each had to make sense of the other. '

'The long Aboriginal occupation of Australia witnessed spectacular changes. The rising of the seas isolated the continent and preserved a nomadic way of life, while agriculture was revolutionising other parts of the world. Over millennia, the Aboriginal people mastered the land's climates, seasons and resources.'

'Traditional Aboriginal life came under threat the moment Europeans crossed the world to plant a new society in an unknown land. That land in turn rewarded, tricked, tantalised and often defeated the new arrivals. The meeting of the two cultures is one of the most difficult and complex meetings in recorded history. '

'In this book Professor Geoffrey Blainey returns first to the subject of his celebrated works on Australian history, Triumph of the Nomads (1975) and A Land Half Won (1980), retelling the story of our history up until 1850 in light of the latest research. He has changed his view about vital aspects of the Indigenous and early British history of this land, and looked at other aspects for the first time.' (Source: Publisher's website)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2015 .
      image of person or book cover 4043382453692257208.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 400p.
      Note/s:
      • Includes bibliography and index.
      • Published February 2015
      ISBN: 9781760141035 (hbk), 0670078719
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Related Works

y separately published work icon The Story of Australia’s People : The Rise and Rise of a New Australia, Vol. II Geoffrey Blainey , Melbourne : Penguin , 2016 12214410 2016 multi chapter work criticism

'In Volume II of The Story of Australia's People, Geoffrey Blainey continues his account of the history of this country from the early Gold Rush to the present day, completing the story of our nation and its people.

'When Europeans crossed the world to plant a new society in an unknown land, traditional life for Australia's first inhabitants changed forever. For the new arrivals, Australia was a land that rewarded, tricked, tantalised and often defeated. From the Gold Rush to Land Rights and the Digital Age, Blainey brings to life the key events of more recent times that have shaped us into the nation and people we are today. Compelling, groundbreaking and brilliantly readable, The Story of Australia's People Volume II is the second installment of an ambitious two-part work, and the culmination of the lifework of Australia's most prolific and wide-ranging historian.' (Publication summary)
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Works about this Work

The Story of Australia’s People: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia, Vol. I./The Story of Australia’s People : The Rise and Rise of a New Australia, Vol. II. Geoffrey Robertson , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 48 no. 4 2017;

'Geoffrey Blainey is Australia’s happy historian. ‘Blame’ is not in his vocabulary and his hindsight points no fingers at the past. Thus our nation’s story is told congenially, in large typeface, without footnotes to trouble the ‘general reader’ to whom it is directed – the author’s trademark generalisations come with the authority of his age and his achievements. They are nicely, sometimes lyrically, expressed, as he tells two stories – triumphal (how the progeny of British convicts built a prosperous nation) and tragic (the despoliation and degradation of our indigenous people) without bothering too much about how they may have been causally related.' (Introduction)
Doing the Police : Geoffrey Blainey's Prevailing Strain of Optimism Brian Matthews , 2016 single work review essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 387 2016; (p. 9-10) 'The seminar, as far as I can remember, took place in what was then the Melbourne Teachers’ College on Grattan Street. The late-afternoon sunlight slanting through ornate windows burnt bright on a huge World War I scene on the wall behind the speakers’ table where the names of those who had made ‘the ultimate sacrifice’ were listed with melancholy precision. I remember gazing at that painting while I waited for the seminar to start. It reminded me of the ornate, scrolled, oval frame I had inherited, from which my grandfather, No. 17051 Private Alexander Murray, looked out, slightly quizzical, puzzled, his boyish face overshadowed by the military cap. On either side of the portrait hung his medals, their ribbons faded, and between them a citation in which futility grapples with dignity. ‘He whom this scroll commemorates ... passed out of the sight of men by the path of self-sacrifice ... Let those who come after see to it that his name be not forgotten.’' (Introduction)
The Triumph of Unity Alan Atkinson , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18-19 April 2015; (p. 18-19)
The Long View Phil Brown , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 28 March 2015; (p. 19)
— Review of The Story of Australia's People Volume 1: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia Geoffrey Blainey , 2015 single work single work criticism 'It's the bleeding obvious that Australia's history started long before European arrival, but historian Geoffrey Blainey still believes it is a point worth making...'
A Culture to Celebrate John Maynard , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 March 2015; (p. 32) The Age , 21 March 2015; (p. 26)
— Review of The Story of Australia's People Volume 1: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia Geoffrey Blainey , 2015 single work single work criticism
A Culture to Celebrate John Maynard , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 March 2015; (p. 32) The Age , 21 March 2015; (p. 26)
— Review of The Story of Australia's People Volume 1: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia Geoffrey Blainey , 2015 single work single work criticism
The Long View Phil Brown , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 28 March 2015; (p. 19)
— Review of The Story of Australia's People Volume 1: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia Geoffrey Blainey , 2015 single work single work criticism 'It's the bleeding obvious that Australia's history started long before European arrival, but historian Geoffrey Blainey still believes it is a point worth making...'
The Triumph of Unity Alan Atkinson , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18-19 April 2015; (p. 18-19)
Doing the Police : Geoffrey Blainey's Prevailing Strain of Optimism Brian Matthews , 2016 single work review essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 387 2016; (p. 9-10) 'The seminar, as far as I can remember, took place in what was then the Melbourne Teachers’ College on Grattan Street. The late-afternoon sunlight slanting through ornate windows burnt bright on a huge World War I scene on the wall behind the speakers’ table where the names of those who had made ‘the ultimate sacrifice’ were listed with melancholy precision. I remember gazing at that painting while I waited for the seminar to start. It reminded me of the ornate, scrolled, oval frame I had inherited, from which my grandfather, No. 17051 Private Alexander Murray, looked out, slightly quizzical, puzzled, his boyish face overshadowed by the military cap. On either side of the portrait hung his medals, their ribbons faded, and between them a citation in which futility grapples with dignity. ‘He whom this scroll commemorates ... passed out of the sight of men by the path of self-sacrifice ... Let those who come after see to it that his name be not forgotten.’' (Introduction)
The Story of Australia’s People: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia, Vol. I./The Story of Australia’s People : The Rise and Rise of a New Australia, Vol. II. Geoffrey Robertson , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 48 no. 4 2017;

'Geoffrey Blainey is Australia’s happy historian. ‘Blame’ is not in his vocabulary and his hindsight points no fingers at the past. Thus our nation’s story is told congenially, in large typeface, without footnotes to trouble the ‘general reader’ to whom it is directed – the author’s trademark generalisations come with the authority of his age and his achievements. They are nicely, sometimes lyrically, expressed, as he tells two stories – triumphal (how the progeny of British convicts built a prosperous nation) and tragic (the despoliation and degradation of our indigenous people) without bothering too much about how they may have been causally related.' (Introduction)
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Awards

2016 longlisted CHASS Australia Prizes — Australia Book Prize
2016 joint winner Prime Minister's Literary Awards — The Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History With Sam Lipski and Suzanne D. Rutland's Let My People Go: The Untold Story of Australia and the Soviet Jews 1959-89.
VIEW ALL AWARDS (2)
Last amended 9 Nov 2016 07:26:28
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