Henry Reynolds

Historian Henry Reynolds has found himself being asked these questions by many people, over many years, in all parts of Australia. The acclaimed Why Weren't We Told? is a frank account of his personal journey towards the realisation that he, like generations of Australians, grew up with a distorted and idealised version of the past. From the author's unforgettable encounter...

'We are at war with them,' wrote a Tasmanian settler in 1831. 'What we call their crime is what in a white man we should call patriotism.' Australia is dotted with memorials to soldiers who fought in wars overseas. So why are there no official memorials or commemorations of the wars that were fought on Australian soil between First Nations...

The publication of The Other Side of the Frontier in 1981 profoundly changed the way in which we understand the history of relations between indigenous Australians and European settlers. It has since become a classic of Australian history. Drawing from documentary and oral evidence, the book describes in meticulous and compelling detail the ways in which Aborigines responded to the...

Longlisted, The Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History 2024 An epic story of resistance, suffering and survival. Tongerlongeter resurrects a once-in-a-generation leader all Australians can admire. Australia has no war hero more impressive than Tongerlongeter. Leader of the Oyster Bay nation of south-east Tasmania in the 1820s and '30s, he and his allies led the most effective...

Henry Reynolds and Nicholas Clements uncover the extraordinary story of one of Australia's greatest military leaders. Tongerlongeter is an epic story of resistance, sorrow, and survival. Leader of the Oyster Bay nation of south-east Tasmania in the 1820s and '30s, Tongerlongeter and his allies prosecuted the most effective frontier resistance ever mounted on Australian soil, inflicting some 354 casualties. His...

Winner, Educational Publishing Australia Awards 2021, Non-Fiction Book of the Year Winner, Tasmanian Literary Awards 2022, Premier's Prize for Non-fiction at the People's Choice Award Shortlisted, Queensland Literary Awards 2021, Non-Fiction Book Award Longlisted, Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History 2022 Shortlisted, Ernest Scott Prize 2022 Longlisted, Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award 2022 Inspired by the...

Australian governments find it easy to go to war. Their leaders seem to be able to withdraw with a calm conscience, answerable neither to God nor humanity. Australia lost 600 men in the Boer War, a three-year conflict fought in the heart of Africa that had ostensibly nothing to do with Australia. Coinciding with Federation, the war kickstarted Australia's commitment...

In recent years, Anzac—an idea as much as an actual army corps—has become the dominant force within Australian history, overshadowing everything else. The commemoration of Anzac Day is bigger than ever, while Remembrance Day, VE Day, VP Day, and other military anniversaries grow in significance each year. Pilgrimages to Gallipoli, the Somme, and Kokoda are commonplace, and popular military history...

'How is it our minds are not satisfied? What means this whispering in the bottom of our hearts?' Listening to the whispering in his own heart, Henry Reynolds was led into the lives of remarkable and largely forgotten white humanitarians who followed their consciences and challenged the prevailing attitudes to Indigenous people. His now-classic book The Whispering in Our Hearts...

Henry Reynolds' ground-breaking re-examination of Australian colonisation from the north down. When acclaimed historian Henry Reynolds moved from Hobart to Townsville to teach Australian history in the 1960s, he discovered the books of the period covered very little about northern Australia and First Nations peoples. He set out to help remedy the situation and ended up transforming Australian history in...