An invaluable introductory textbook that provides students with a concise overview of Australian history: from the first settlers thousands of years ago, to the great migrations of recent centuries, through to those living within the more anxiously controlled borders of the present day. Drawing on political debate, official reports, intellectual discussion and popular culture, Peel and Twomey weave together a vivid, multi-dimensional national history that explores central topics against the wider international background. This is an ideal core text for dedicated modules on Australian History, or a supplementary text for broader modules on World History, which may be offered at all levels of an undergraduate History degree. In addition it is a crucial resource for students who may be studying the history of Australia for the first time as part of a taught postgraduate degree in Australian or World History.

Author Biography

MARK PEEL is Professor of Modern Cultural and Social History and Head of History at the University of Liverpool, UK, having previously been a Professor and Head of School at Monash University, Australia. He is the author of Good Times, Hard Times: The Past and the Future in Elizabeth, The Lowest Rung: Voices of Australian Poverty and Miss Cutler and the Case of the Resurrected Horse: Dramatising Poverty in American, Australian and British Social Work. CHRISTINA TWOMEY is Associate Professor of History at Monash University, Australia. She has published widely on the cultural history of war, and is the author of Australia's Forgotten Prisoners: Civilians Interned by the Japanese in World War II and Deserted and Destitute: Motherhood, Wife Desertion and Colonial Welfare.