This close examination of Sir Arthur Gordon's six governorships (New Brunswick, Trinidad, Mauritius, Fiji, New Zealand, and Ceylon) and his administration of the Western Pacific High Commission should help fill the need for a more accurate assessment of the role of the colonial governor in the governing process than the paucity of biographies of these governors has previously made possible. It demonstrates the revolutionary impact that an inventive and determined governor of proconsular pr...

*On 26 January the convict transports moved into their new home as a handful of Aborigines on the shore set up a horrid howl and indicated by angry gestures with sticks and stones that the white man was not wanted.*More than a decade after his death, Manning Clark remains Australia's most eminent and controversial historian. A Short History of Australia, considered by many to be his greatest work, charts the nation's social, cultural and political growth from the arrival of that f...

If there are genuine questions about Australian history, there is something to puzzle over. The history ceases to be predictable—and dull.From the author of The Shortest History of Europe, acclaimed historian John Hirst, comes this fresh and stimulating approach to understanding Australia's past and present.Hirst asks and answers questions that get to the heart of Australia's history:Why did Aborigines not become farmers?How did a p...

William Hague has written the life of William Wilberforce who was both a staunch conservative and a tireless campaigner against the slave trade.Hague shows how Wilberforce, after his agonising conversion to evangelical Christianity, was able to lead a powerful tide of opinion, as MP for Hull, against the slave trade, a process which was to take up to half a century to be fully realised. Indeed, he succeeded in rallying to his cause the support in the Commons Debates of some the fin...

WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Comes with an Active Table of Contents.    This history is full of vivid details of the hard life of the first explorers and pioneers.    It covers the period from 1600 to 1901. It has all the makings of an adventure story with epic shipping voyages, politics, starvation, searches for water and minerals, convicts, and hard work.  In most countries, the story of the European settlers creating villages...

Great Australian Speeches brings together a diverse and often moving collection of more than 40 speeches ranging from colonial times to the present day. Some have resonated with power enough to shape the nation; others encapsulate the best and worst of the Australian character. This selection proves that stirring oratory is not simply the preserve of politicians and military figures. Bushranger Ned Kelly makes a speech within a speech as his death sentence is passed, interrupting ...

The award-winning biography of William Pitt the Younger by William Hague, the youngest leader of the Tory Party since Pitt himself.William Pitt the Younger was one of the most extraordinary figures in British history. Prime minister at the age of twenty-four, he went on to dominate British politics for two decades, presiding over such complex and treacherous national crises as the madness of King George III, the beleaguered union with Ireland, the fallout from the French Revolution...

A monumental new account of the defining conflict in New Zealand history. It was war in the Waikato in 186364 that shaped the nation in all kinds of ways: setting back Māori and Pākehā relations by several generations and allowing the government to begin to assert the kind of real control over the country that had eluded it since 1840.Spanning nearly two centuries from first contact through to settlement and apology, Vincent O’Malley focuses on the human impact of the war, its origins and ...

A new edition of the bestselling short history on New Zealand, updated to include the Helen Clark years, the rise of John Key, the Christchurch earthquakes and the 2011 Rugby World Cup! A lively and accessible history written by one of New Zealands most well-known commentators on matters past and present. Succinct and well referenced, this book is the most accessible introduction to New Zealand history currently in print.

Jenkins' account of the constitutional struggle between the Liberal government of the early twentieth century and the House of Lords. The battle started with the introduction of the People's Budget of 1909 and continued through two general elections until 1911 when the Lords accepted the Parliament bill.

Since its publication in 1987, Claudia Orange’s book has become the standard guide to one of the key documents in New Zealand history, selling over 40,000 copies.The complexities of the Treaty, which have done so much to shape New Zealand history for nearly 200 years, are thoughtfully explored as Orange examines the meanings the document has held for Māori and Pākehā.A new introduction brings it up to date with all that has happened since, complementing the book’s lucid and well-researched...

Freedom on the Fatal Shore brings together John Hirst's two books on the early history of New South Wales. Both are classic accounts which have had a profound effect on the understanding of our history. This combined edition includes a new foreword by the author.Convicts with their "own time", convicts with legal rights, convicts making money, convicts getting drunk - what sort of prison was this? Hirst describes how the convict colony actually worked and how Australian de...