Cirrus@Austlit

'A landmark and revealing joint biography of Elizabeth and John Macarthur, from one of Australia’s most respected historians.

'Arriving in 1790, Elizabeth and John Macarthur, both aged 23, were the first married couple to travel voluntarily from Europe to Australia, within three years of the initial invasion. John Macarthur soon became famous in New South Wales and beyond as a wool pioneer, a politician, and a builder of farms at Parramatta and Camden. For a long time, Elizabeth’s life was regarded as contingent on John’s and, more recently, John’s on Elizabeth’s.

'In Elizabeth and John, Alan Atkinson, prizewinning author of Europeans in Australia, draws on his work on the Macarthur family over 50 years to explore the dynamics of a strong and sinewy marriage, and family life over two generations. With the truth of John and Elizabeth Macarthur’s relationship much more complicated and more deeply human than other writers have suggested, Atkinson provides a finely drawn portrait of a powerful partnership.'  (Publication summary)

'For all its dated idealism, I want to suggest that the late nineteenth century as it appeared to Ward, and also to Palmer, still has its uses as a pivotal moment for the broad integrity of the Australian story. It was a time of apotheosis in more ways than Ward imagined. It was an era when collective self-understanding was refashioned at a new and more elevated level, when the particular became generalised and when partial experiences were drawn together to create an ideal. But this was very much a multifaceted process. The period has been examined from a number of angles, usually with the idea that it was one of high creativity, when foundations were laid for the construction of the Australian psyche, national identity and so forth (all of which might be seen as aspects of the 'Australian Settlement'). But also, and more profoundly, the period is vital for what it shows about the operation of intelligence and imagination on physical circumstances. Ward himself concentrated on the bush ethos and on rural workers, his so-called 'nomad tribe'. Others have written about the visual representation of the landscape. Prose and poetry have also been well examined. Technological inventions have been accounted for to some extent railways and telegraph lines, water engineering, agricultural machinery, meat refrigeration and so on, which taken altogether were certainly extraordinary. They too were inspired mainly by rural life and productivity.'

Source: Article abstract.

'High Lean Country captures the rich history and haunting character of the New England region of northern New South Wales.

'The authors explore how memory - of land, of family, of patterns of life on the other side of the world - has influenced the identity of New England. They also consider how the high country itself has shaped its people and their sense of regional uniqueness. In doing so, this book sets a new direction for understanding Australia as a whole.

'Weaving together the histories of human settlement, economic, social and cultural development, as well as interactions with the environment, High Lean Country shows how colonial settlers strived for decades to literally create a new England. It traces the story of the graduates of Oxford and Cambridge who turned their hands to sheep husbandry and developed a squattocracy, the establishment of schools and other institutions, and the cultivation of traditional arts. It also examines the early colonial bushranging period, and a history of not always friendly relations between white settlers and the local Aboriginal population.

'A project of the Heritage Futures Research Centre at the University of New England, High Lean Country is a fascinating study of this distinctive Australian high country.' (Publisher's blurb)

'In the first volume of his history of Australia, Alan Atkinson covers the first impact of European power on Australia. He argues that the Europeans were not simply conquerors, that their own cultures were infinitely complex, thickly-woven with ideas about spirituality, authority, self and land, all of which influenced the development of Australia.' (Publication summary)