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Dancing with Strangers

Text Classics
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( 262 ratings, 35 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Dancing with Strangers by Inga Clendinnen explores the complex and often fraught interactions between British settlers and the Indigenous people of Australia during the early years of colonisation. The book delves into the misunderstandings and cultural exchanges that occurred as both groups attempted to navigate their differences. It's a thoughtful examination of the initial encounters and the impact of these early relationships on Australian history.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're fascinated by historical narratives that delve into first encounters between cultures. The author offers a compelling exploration of the early interactions between British settlers and the Indigenous people of Australia, blending meticulous research with vivid storytelling to bring complex histories to life.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Dancing with Strangers is Inga Clendinnen's seminal account of the moment in January 1788 when the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Harbour, and a thousand British men and women, some of them convicts and some free, encountered the Australians living there. "These people mixed with ours," wrote a British observer after landfall, "and all hands danced together." What followed would shape relations between the peoples for the next two centuries.

Winner: Kiriyama Prize 2004

Winner: Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction, NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2004

Winner: Best History Book, Queensland Premier's Literary Awards 2004

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Dancing with Strangers by Inga Clendinnen is praised for its vivid and beguiling depiction of early British Australia. It is described as a stylistic blend of lyrical prose and historical insight, offering both emotional depth and wit. The book is noted for its fresh and entertaining take on history, rendering characters and events with narrative brilliance and poetic elegance.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781925498738

Publisher: Text Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 28 August 2017

Country: Australia

Imprint: The Text Publishing Company

Contributors:

  • Introduction by James Boyce

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 352

About the Author

Inga Clendinnen was born in Geelong in 1934. Her early books and scholarly articles on the Aztecs and Maya of Mexico earned her a reputation as one of the world's finest historians. Reading the Holocaust, Tiger's Eye and Dancing with Strangers have been critically acclaimed and won a number of local and international awards.

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