Download or read book Girt Nation written by David Hunt and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Hunt tramples the tall poppies of the past in charting Australia's transformation from aspiration to nation - an epic tale of charlatans and costermongers, of bush bards and bushier beards, of workers and women who weren't going to take it anymore. Girt Nation introduces Alfred Deakin, the Liberal necromancer whose dead advisors made Australia a better place to live, and Banjo Paterson, the jihadist who called on God and the Prophet to drive the Australian infidels from the Sudan 'like sand before the gale'. And meet Catherine Helen Spence, the feminist polymath who envisaged a utopian future of free contraceptives, easy divorce and immigration restrictions to prevent the 'Chinese coming to destroy all we have struggled for!' Thrill as Jandamarra leads the Bunuba against Western Australia, and Valentine Keating leads the Crutchy Push, an all-amputee street gang, against the conventionally limbed. Gasp as Essendon Football Club trainer Carl von Ledebur injects his charges with crushed dog and goat testicles. Weep as Scott Morrison's communist great-great-aunt Mary Gilmore holds a hose in New Australia. And marvel at how Labor, a political party that spent a quarter of a century infighting over how to spell its own name, ever rose to power. 'Makes you wish David Hunt had been your history teacher. Laugh-out-loud funny and you'll actually learn something.' —Mark Humphries 'An entertaining and instructive historical romp through the formative period of Australian nation-making with a colourful cast of rhymesters, revolutionaries, rebels, racists, reprobates and rabbits.' —Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, The Australian National University 'Once again, David Hunt uses his sharpened wit to chisel away at misconceptions from Australian history leaving us with the cold, hard truth of how our nation came to be.' —Osher Günsberg 'Australian history told intelligently, but with more humour than ever before ... Girt Nation is fabulous storytelling, putting meat on the bones of the national story.' —The Weekend Australian

Download or read book Girt written by David Hunt and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Girt. No word could better capture the essence of Australia ... In this hilarious history, David Hunt reveals the truth of Australia's past, from megafauna to Macquarie - the cock-ups and curiosities, the forgotten eccentrics and Eureka moments that have made us who we are. Girt introduces forgotten heroes like Mary McLoghlin, transported for the crime of "felony of sock", and Trim the cat, who beat a French monkey to become the first animal to circumnavigate Australia. It recounts the misfortunes of the escaped Irish convicts who set out to walk from Sydney to China, guided only by a hand-drawn paper compass, and explains the role of the coconut in Australia's only military coup. Our nation's beginnings are steeped in the strange, the ridiculous and the frankly bizarre. Girt proudly reclaims these stories for all of us. Not to read it would be un-Australian. About the author: David Hunt is an unusually tall and handsome man who likes writing his own biographical notes for all the books he has written (one). He has worked as an historical consultant and comedy writer for television, and also has a proper job. "A sneaky, sometimes shocking peek under the dirty rug of Australian history." John Birmingham "Hilarious and insightful -- Hunt has found the deep wells of humour in Australia's history." Chris Taylor, The Chaser

Download or read book True Girt written by David Hunt and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2016-10-31 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this side-splitting sequel to his best-selling history, David Hunt takes us to the Australian frontier. This was the Wild South, home to hardy pioneers, gun-slinging bushrangers, directionally challenged explorers, nervous indigenous people, Caroline Chisholm and sheep. Lots of sheep. First there was Girt. Now comes . . . True Girt True Girt introduces Thomas Davey, the hard-drinking Tasmanian governor who invented the Blow My Skull cocktail, and Captain Moonlite, Australia's most famous LGBTI bushranger. Meet William Nicholson, the Melbourne hipster who gave Australia the steam-powered coffee roaster and the world the secret ballot. And say hello to Harry, the first camel used in Australian exploration, who shot dead his owner, the explorer John Horrocks. Learn how Truganini's death inspired the Martian invasion of Earth. Discover the role of Hall and Oates in the Myall Creek Massacre. And be reminded why you should never ever smoke with the Wild Colonial Boy and Mad Dan Morgan. If Manning Clark and Bill Bryson were left on a desert island with only one pen, they would write True Girt. 'An engaging, witty and utterly irreverent take on Australian history.' —Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project 'Astounding, gruesome and frequently hilarious, True Girt is riveting from beginning to end.' —Nick Earls

Download or read book Nona and Me written by Clare Atkins and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rosie and Nona are sisters. Yapas. They are also best friends. It doesn’t matter that Rosie is white and Nona is Aboriginal: their family connections tie them together for life. The girls are inseparable until Nona moves away at the age of nine. By the time she returns, they’re in Year 10 and things have changed. Rosie prefers to hang out in the nearby mining town, where she goes to school with the glamorous Selena and her gorgeous older brother, Nick. When a political announcement highlights divisions between the Aboriginal community and the mining town, Rosie is put in a difficult position: will she have to choose between her first love and her oldest friend? Winner, Book of the Year: 2016 NT Literary Awards Highly commended, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards for Writing for Young Adults Longlisted, 2015 Inky Awards Honour Book, 2015 Children’s Book Council of Australia, Book of the Year for Older Reader Shortlisted, 2016 Territory Read Award ‘A powerful coming-of-age story ... Atkins writes with clear-eyed sensitivity, and although I longed to hear Nona’s voice, its absence is deliberate and effective. Nona & Me is poignant young-adult fiction invoking the complex and often overlooked realities of remote indigenous life.’ —Sydney Morning Herald ‘[Clare Atkins] wrestles with some of this country's most hotly debated political issues with a rare lightness of touch. [Nona & Me is] a convincing portrait of a naive but feverish first love, friendships waxing and waning, and the clash between fitting in and sticking to your values. Above all, there's a warmth and optimism that's hard to resist.’ —Sunday Age ‘This [is a] powerful, beautifully contoured story of cross-cultural friendship.’ —The Weekend Australian

Download or read book The Rome Zoo written by Pascal Janovjak and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2021-08-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rome, too, wants the sound of roaring as evening falls ... The Rome Zoo: a place born of fantasy and driven by a nation’s aspirations. It has witnessed – and reflected in its tarnished mirror – the great follies of the twentieth century. Now, in an ongoing battle that has seen it survive world wars and epidemics, the zoo must once again reinvent itself, and assert its relevance in the Eternal City. Caught up in these machinations is a cast of characters worthy of this baroque backdrop: a man desperate to find meaning in his own life, a woman tasked with halting the zoo’s decline and a rare animal, the last of its species, who bewitches the world. Drifting between past and present, The Rome Zoo weaves together these and many other stories, forming a colourful and evocative tapestry of life at this strange place. It is both a love story and a poignant juxtaposition of the human need to classify, to subdue, with the untameable nature of our dramas and anxieties. Spellbinding and disturbing, precise and dreamy, this award-winning novel, translated by Stephanie Smee, is unlike any other. Winner of the Swiss Literature Award, the Prix Michel-Dentan and the Prix du public de la RTS “Like all truly great literary allegories, The Rome Zoo is both innocent and wise, filled equally with tenderness and darkness. A gorgeous, dream-like fable of Italy's past and present.” —Ceridwen Dovey

Download or read book Nationalizing Empires written by Stefan Berger and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-30 with total page 702 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in Nationalizing Empires challenge the dichotomy between empire and nation state that for decades has dominated historiography. The authors center their attention on nation-building in the imperial core and maintain that the nineteenth century, rather than the age of nation-states, was the age of empires and nationalism. They identify a number of instances where nation building projects in the imperial metropolis aimed at the preservation and extension of empires rather than at their dissolution or the transformation of entire empires into nation states. Such observations have until recently largely escaped theoretical reflection.

Download or read book Dog Days written by Ross Garnaut and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2013-11-15 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A blueprint for the nation after the boom. Australians have just lived through a period of exceptional prosperity, but, says influential economist Ross Garnaut, the Dog Days are on their way. Are we ready for the challenges ahead? In Dog Days, Garnaut explains how we got here, what we can expect next and the tough choices we need to make to survive the new economic conditions. Are we clever enough – and our leaders courageous enough – to change what needs to be changed and preserve a fair and prosperous Australia? This is a book about the future by a leading adviser to government and business, someone with a proven record of seeing where the nation is going. Both forecast and analysis, it heralds a new era for Australia after the boom.

Download or read book State of the Nation written by Gwenda Tavan and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2015-01-29 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning collection of essays that analyses the major issues facing Australia today This nation has a lot of unfinished business. Will we become a republic any time soon? How can we honour our Indigenous peoples and tackle the intractable disadvantage they face? What does our treatment of asylum seekers reveal about us? Will we have a proper debate the next time we go to war? In early 2013 La Trobe University held a conference in honour of Professor Robert Manne, at which papers were presented by thinkers Manne has worked or argued with, and whom he most admires. State of the Nation compiles these original essays. They include innovative explorations of multiculturalism, social democracy, the future for Labor and the challenge of climate change. This is a book that shows how Australia is faring, good and bad, as it enters a new era of politics. Contributors include Mark Aarons, Stefan Auer, Nicholas Barry, Peter Beilharz, David Corlett, Jean Curthoys, Patrick Dodson, Chris Feik, Raimond Gaita, Rhonda Galbally, Clive Hamilton, John Hirst, Ramona Koval, Martin Krygier, Carmen Lawrence, Geoffrey Brahm Levey, William Maley, Anne Manne, Russell Marks, Mark McKenna, David McKnight, Aurelien Mondon, A. Dirk Moses, David Ritter, Morry Schwartz, Sanjay Seth, Tim Soutphommasane and Hugh White.

Download or read book The Australians written by John Hirst and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2011 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there an Australian national character? What are its distinguishing features? Over the years, how have insiders and outsiders summed up this country and its people, and how have Australians responded to outside criticism? In The Australians, John Hirst gathers together the key assessments of the national character, on topics as diverse as sport, war, mateship, humour, put-downs, suburbia and going native. There is celebration and criticism. There is humour and insight. There is the difference between what Australians think of themselves and what they are really like. Contributors include Winston Churchill, Ned Kelly, Tim Flannery, Henry Lawson, Peter Cosgrove, Germaine Greer, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Captain James Cook, David Malouf, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, Patrick White, Oscar Wilde and Tim Winton.

Download or read book Reset written by Ross Garnaut and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2021-02-22 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘The nation’s most prophetic economist’—Ross Gittins In Reset, renowned economist Ross Garnaut shows how the COVID-19 crisis offers Australia the opportunity to reset its economy and build a successful future – and why the old approaches will not work. Garnaut develops the idea of a renewable superpower, he calls for a basic income and he explores what the ‘decoupling’ of China and America will mean for Australia. In the wake of COVID-19, the world has entered its deepest recession since the 1930s. Shocks of this magnitude throw history from its established course – either for good or evil. In 1942 – in the depths of war – the Australian government established a Department of Post-War Reconstruction to plan a future that not only restored existing strengths but also rebuilt the country for a new and better future. As we strive to overcome the coronavirus challenge, we need new, practical ideas to restore Australia. This book has them. La Trobe University Press in conjunction with Black Inc. and the University of Melbourne

Download or read book My Ikaria written by Spiri Tsintziras and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2018-04-02 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three years ago, Spiri Tsintziras found herself mentally, physically and spiritually depleted. She was stretched thin – raising kids, running a household and managing a business. She ate too much in order to keep going and then slumped in front of the telly at night, exhausted, asking herself ‘What is it all for?’ Spiri’s quest for a healthier, more nourishing life took her from her suburban home in Melbourne to her family’s homeland of Greece, and to the small Greek island of Ikaria. The people of Ikaria – part of the famous ‘Blue Zones’ – live happy, healthy and long lives. Inspired by their example, Spiri made some simple lifestyle changes and as a result lost weight, gained energy and deepened the connection to those closest to her. Best of all, she didn’t have to give up bread or wine! Spiri’s heartwarming memoir, which includes delicious family recipes, will console and entertain anyone bogged down in the daily grind – encouraging you to put your health and happiness first. ‘My Ikaria is a kindly wake-up call to live a more mindful, meaningful and generous life – a joy to read.’ —Alice Pung ‘I applaud Spiri for sharing her fascinating and insightful journey to better health through My Ikaria. As our lives become increasingly busy and fast-paced, we can all learn valuable lessons from the Ikarians, who show us it’s not about striving to live longer but to live better.’ —Jerril Rechter, VicHealth CEO ‘Tsintziras gives an engaging account of her Ikarian journey, practically and philosophically, saying “they’ve reached across the seas and inspired me to live better”. This charming memoir may inspire you to live better too.’ —SAWeekend

Download or read book Underwater Wild written by Craig Foster (Filmmaker) and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2021 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Craig Foster and Ross Frylinck regularly dive together in the awe-inspiring kelp forests off South Africa, without wetsuits or oxygen tanks. Craig had dived this way for years, including alongside the octopus that inspired My Octopus Teacher. In Ross, he found a kindred spirit, someone who also embraced the ancient methods of acclimating his body to frigid waters, but whose eyes had not yet adjusted to the transcendent wonder Craig saw each time they dove. In the heart-wrenching stories that make up this unforgettable book, we swim alongside Ross as he grows from skeptic to student of the underwater wild. And in the revelatory marine science behind the stunning photos, we learn how to track sea hares, cuttlefish, and limpets, and we witness strange new behaviors never before documented in marine biology. We realize that a whole world of wonder, and an innate wildness within us all, emerge anew when we simply observe. "--publisher's website.

Download or read book The Game written by Sean Kelly and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2021-11-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when the prime minister views politics only as a game? Australia wanted Scott Morrison. In a time of uncertainty, the country chose in 2019 to turn to a man with no obvious beliefs, no clear purpose and no famous talents. That we wanted Scott Morrison was the secret we did not know about ourselves. What precisely that secret is forms the subject of this book. In The Game, Sean Kelly gives us a portrait of a man, the shallow political culture that allowed him to succeed and the country that crowned him. Morrison understands – in a way that no other recent politician has – how politics has become a game. He also understands something essential about Australia – something many of us are unwilling to admit, even to ourselves. But there are things Scott Morrison does not understand. This is the story of those failures, too – and the way that, as his prime ministership continues, Morrison’s failure to think about politics as anything other than a game has become a dangerous liability, both to him and to us.

Download or read book Deep Time Dreaming written by Billy Griffiths and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2018-02-26 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People would have known about Australia before they saw it. Smoke billowing above the sea spoke of a land that lay beyond the horizon. A dense cloud of migrating birds may have pointed the way. But the first Australians were voyaging into the unknown. Soon after Billy Griffiths joins his first archaeological dig as camp manager and cook, he is hooked. Equipped with a historian’s inquiring mind, he embarks on a journey through time, seeking to understand the extraordinary deep history of the Australian continent. Deep Time Dreaming is the passionate product of that journey. It investigates a twin revolution: the reassertion of Aboriginal identity in the second half of the twentieth century, and the uncovering of the traces of ancient Australia. It explores what it means to live in a place of great antiquity, with its complex questions of ownership and belonging. It is about a slow shift in national consciousness: the deep time dreaming that has changed the way many of us relate to this continent and its enduring, dynamic human history. John Mulvaney Book Award: Winner Ernest Scott Prize: Winner NSW Premier's Literary Awards: Winner - Book of the Year NSW Premier's Literary Awards: Winner - Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards: Highly Commended Queensland Literary Awards: Shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards: Shortlisted Educational Publishing Awards: Shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards: Longlisted CHASS Book Prize: Longlisted ‘What a revelatory work! If you wish to hear the voice of our continent's history before the written word, Deep Time Dreaming is a must read. The freshest, most important book about our past in years.’ —Tim Flannery ‘Once every generation a book comes along that marks the emergence of a powerful new literary voice and shifts our understanding of the nation’s past. Billy Griffiths’ Deep Time Dreaming is one such book. Deeply researched, creatively conceived and beautifully written, it charts the expansion of archaeological knowledge in Australia for the first time. No other book has managed to convey the mystery and intricacy of Indigenous antiquity in quite the same way. Read it: it will change the way you see Australian history.’ —Mark McKenna, historian ‘Billy Griffiths’ Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia is a remarkable book, and one destined, I believe, to become a modern classic of Australian history writing. Written in vivid, evocative prose, this book will grip both the expert and the general reader alike.’ —Iain McCalman, author of The Reef: A Passionate History: The Great Barrier Reef from Captain Cook to Climate Change

Download or read book The Opportunist written by Guy Rundle and published by Quarterly Essay. This book was released on 2001 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Opportunist, Guy Rundle comes to grips with John Howard, the prime minister who, on the eve of an election, seems to have turned round his political fortunes by spurning refugees and writing blank cheques for America's War on Terror. This is a brilliant account of John Howard's dominant ideas, his concerted 'dreaming' with its emphasis on unity and national identity that reveals him to be the most reactionary PM we have ever had, the only political leader who would allow ideas like those of One Nation to dominate the mainstream of Australian politics in order to improve his political chances. Rundle puts Howard in the context of the economic liberalism he shares with his colleagues and opponents and the conservative social ideology that sets him apart. It is a complex portrait in a radical mirror which relates John Howard to everything from Menzies's 'forgotten people' to the inadvertent glamour of the government's antidrug advertising. It is also a plea for right-thinking people of every political persuasion to resist the call to prejudice and reaction.

Download or read book Tired of Winning written by Richard Cooke and published by Black Incorporated. This book was released on 2019-03-25 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Polarised, unequal, enraged and spiritually bereft, the American experiment, under Donald Trump, looks to be on the brink of failure. In this award-winning series of dispatches and essays, Richard Cooke explores US society before, during and after one of the most high-stakes midterm elections in history. From the aesthetics of semi-automatic rifles to the aftermath of a media mass shooting, from #MeToo at the Capitol to the paintings of former president George W. Bush, Cooke's travels take him from the climate change coast all the way to Silicon Valley. But this is not another diner-hopping, two-week car journey into Trump country. Instead, it's a radical effort to capture dissonant and varied Americas, more often unreal than "real". The nation has shattered under a barrage of social estrangement, malign politics, dark money, and the pull of the internet and social media. This chronicle collects the glittering shards. Entertaining, terrifying and timely,Tired of Winningis searing analysis from an inimitable political thinker, set loose on the schisms and the clamour of contemporary America.

Download or read book Australia Fair written by Rebecca Huntley and published by Black Incorporated. This book was released on 2019-03-18 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do Australians want most from their next government? In this vivid, grounded, surprising essay, Rebecca Huntley listens to the people and hears a call for change. Too often we focus on the angry, reactionary minority. But, Huntley shows, there is also a large progressive centre. For some time, a clear majority have been saying they want action - on climate and energy, on housing and inequality, on corporate donations and the corruption of democracy. Would a Shorten Labor government rise to this challenge? What can be learnt from the failures of past governments? Was marriage equality just the beginning? In Australia Fair, Rebecca Huntley reveals the state of the nation and makes the case for democratic renewal - should the next government heed the call. "Often the claim is made that our politics and politicians are poll-driven. This is, on the whole, bunkum. If polls were influential, we would have invested much more in renewable energy, maintained and even increased funding to the ABC, and made child care cheaper. We may already have made changes to negative gearing and moved towards adopting elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. We would have taken up the first iteration of the Gonski education reforms. These are some of the issues where a democratic majority comes together, a basic agreement crossing party lines." Rebecca Huntley, Australia Fair