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Author

Geoffrey Blainey

Geoffrey Blainey is one of Australia's most significant and popular historians. He has written some thirty-six full-length books including The Tyranny of Distance, Triumph of the Nomads, Black Kettle and Full Moon, A Short History of the 20th Century, and the bestselling A Short History of the World. Professor Blainey held chairs in economic history and then in plain history at the University of Melbourne for twenty-one years. He was a delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention and also chaired various Commonwealth government bodies, including the Australia Council, the Literature Board, the Australia-China Council, and the National Council for the Centenary of Federation. He is one of the few Australians whose biography appears in Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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Title:

A Shorter History of Australia

Written by:

Geoffrey Blainey 

Read by:

Humphrey Bower 

Format:

Unabridged CD Audio Book 

Number of CDs:

9 

Duration:

10 hours 59 minutes 

Published:

February 01 2010 

Available Date:

February 28 2010 

Age Category:

Adult 

ISBN:

9781742336886 

Genres:

Non-fiction; Asian; Australian; Politics & Current Affairs 

Publisher:

Bolinda audio 

Qty

Format

Price

Bolinda price

AUD$ 39.95

AUD$ 39.95

**

 

"Part of Blainey's magic is that his words float off the page. Here, too, are the puzzles, oddities and off-beat comparisons of his restless, quirky intelligence, constantly astonished and endlessly engaging."
The Age

"The present shape and direction of Australian history writing will now be altered for a long while to come."
Quadrant

Completely revised and updated.

After a lifetime of research and debate on Australian and international history, Geoffrey Blainey is well placed to introduce us to the people who have played a part and to guide us through the events which have created the Australian identity: the mania for spectator sport, the suspicion of the tall poppy, the rivalries of Catholic and Protestant, Sydney and Melbourne, new and old homelands, the conflicts of war abroad and race at home, the importance of technology, the recognition of our Aboriginal past and Native Title, the successes and failures of the nation. For this enlarged edition Blainey has rewritten or expanded on various episodes and themes, making changes to almost every page. He has described significant events and trends of the early 20th century. A final chapter summarises key factors that shaped and still shape this country's history.

"Geoffrey Blainey offers an enjoyable overview of Australian history. Humphrey Bower's Australian accent is endearing for those who love all things Aussie. His presentation is measured and clear, with longish pauses between words. Blainey occasionally uses vocabulary that may not be familiar to Americans (for example, a "sultana" is a kind of raisin), but that doesn’t present an impediment. Unlike other well-known histories of Australia—including Manning Clark's A SHORT HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA and Robert Hughes's THE FATAL SHORE—Blainey's focuses on recent events. He also spends considerable time on events that followed WWII. As is always the case with the analysis of recent history, bias shows. Blainey seems well to the right of center on many Australian political issues."
AudioFile Magazine