100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฟ

New on the blog! ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japanese Healing Fiction & โ˜• The Perfect Winter Reads

Australians: A short history

4.0 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 59 ratings, 4 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
Australians: A Short History by Thomas Keneally offers a comprehensive and engaging overview of Australia's past, from its Indigenous roots to contemporary society. The book delves into pivotal moments and figures that have shaped the nation, highlighting the rich tapestry of cultures and events that define Australia today. Keneally's narrative style ensures an accessible and insightful journey through the country's complex history.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$6500
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

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 have an interest in delving into the rich tapestry of Australia's history, from its Indigenous roots to its modern-day cultural transformations. Written by a renowned author, it offers a compelling narrative that blends personal stories with historical events, providing insight into the nation's identity and evolution. Perfect for those who appreciate a well-told saga of a country's journey through time.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A masterly history of Australia and its people by an author of outstanding literary skill whose own humanity permeates every page.

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

Australians, Thomas Keneally's widely acclaimed three-volume history of the Australian people from origins to Vietnam, offers a robust, vibrant, and page-turning narrative that brings to life the vast range of characters who have formed our national story.

Australians: A Short History combines these three volumes and reintroduces us to the rich assortment of contradictory, inspiring, and surprising characters who shaped a young and cocky Australia.

It tells the story of the original Australians and European occupation of their land, covering the convict era through to pastoralists, bushrangers and gold seekers, working men, and pioneering women. The narrative explores the rifts wrought by World War I, the rise of hard-nosed radicals from the Left and the Right, the social upheavals of the Great Crash and World War II, the Menzies era, and the nation-changing period of post-war migration and Australia's engagement with Asia. This is a truly masterly history of Australia and its people by an author of outstanding literary skill whose own humanity permeates every page.

Praise for Australians, the three-volume history:

'... giving us what Australian history has desperately needed for years.' Canberra Times

'Keneally evokes these distant lives with concrete detail and vivid sympathy ... his people inhabit the same world we do - we meet them without the hesitation of reaching across voids of space and time.' Sydney Morning Herald

'When it comes to writing page-turning narrative no one does it better than Thomas Keneally ... no doubt about it, Australians is a corker.' Weekend Australian

'Reading this book is like listening to a witty raconteur.' Adelaide Advertiser

'This new perspective on Australia's founding fathers is truly fascinating.' Courier Mail

'... what this book does is populate the blankness of our collective memory with lots of characters from all parts of the continent and all walks of life.' Saturday Age

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781760632359

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 January 2018

Country: Australia

Imprint: Allen & Unwin

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 1485g

Pages: 992

About the Author

Thomas Keneally was born in 1935. He has the won the Booker Prize, the Miles Franklin Award, the Los Angeles Book Prize, the Royal Society of Literature Prize, the Scripter Award of the University of Southern California, the Mondello International Prize, and the Helmerich Prize. As well as his many novels, the most recent of which is Crimes of the Father, his numerous works of non-fiction include The Great Shame: The Story of the Irish in the Old World and the New and The Commonwealth of Thieves: The Story of the Founding of Australia. He lives in Sydney with his wife Judy.

Also by Thomas Keneally

View all
  • The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
    The classic by Booker Prize-winner Thomas Keneally When Jimmie Blacksmith marries a white woman, the backlash from both Jimmie's tribe and white society initiates a series of dramatic events. As Jimmie tries to survive between two cultures, tensions reach a head when the Newbys, Jimmie's white employers, try to break up his marriage. The Newby women are murdered and Jimmie...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Dutiful Daughter: Text Classics
    Australian literature's strangest novel, written by its most familiar novelist. It is the duty of a good child to let his parents know the second they turn into animals. Barbara Glover's parents metamorphosed when she hit puberty, becoming bovine from the waist down. Fearful of her transformative powers, she tends diligently to them, keeping them like animals on the family's...
    Paperback
    $1799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Bring Larks and Heroes: Text Classics
    At the world's end, it is Sunday afternoon in February. Through the edge of the forest a soldier moves without any idea he's caught in a mesh of sunlight and shade. Corporal Halloran's this fellow's name. He's a lean boy taking long strides through the Sabbath heat. A South Pacific penal colony in the late eighteenth century. An honest man...
    Paperback
    $1799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Bloody Good Rant
    'When I was born in 1935 I grew up, despite the Depression and World War II, with a primitive sense of being fortunate . . . The utopian strain was very strong . . . if we weren't to be a better society, if we were simply serfs designed to support a system of privilege, what was the bloody point?'...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Bloody Good Rant
    'When I was born in 1935 I grew up, despite the Depression and World War II, with a primitive sense of being fortunate . . . The utopian strain was very strong . . . if we weren't to be a better society, if we were simply serfs designed to support a system of privilege, what was the bloody point?'...
    Paperback
    $5500
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Australians Volume 2
    In this companion volume of Thomas Keneally's widely acclaimed history of the Australian people, the vast range of characters who have formed our national story are brought vividly to life. Immigrants and Aboriginal resistance figures, bushrangers and pastoralists, working men and pioneering women, artists and hard-nosed radicals, politicians and soldiers all populate this richly drawn portrait of a vibrant land...
    Paperback
    $4999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Australians (volume 3)
    'A loving history of the Australian people' - Sydney Morning Herald '...displays historical literacy, and plenty of humanity, empathy and compassion, all qualities rare in our public culture to be cherished when we find them.' - Weekend Australian As in the two previous volumes of Australians, Thomas Keneally brings history to vivid and pulsating life. He traces the lives and...
    Paperback
    $4999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Schindler's Ark
    In the shadow of Auschwitz, a flamboyant German industrialist grew into a living legend to the Jews of Cracow. He was a womaniser, a heavy drinker and a bon viveur, but to them he became a saviour. This is the extraordinary story of Oskar Schindler, who risked his life to protect Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland and who was transformed by...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Blood Red, Sister Rose
    The story of Joan of Arc has always held a special fascination for writers - among them Voltaire, Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw and Jean Anouilh. Here Thomas Keneally transforms the legend, presenting a Joan who is at once a tough radical, an instinctive soldier, a nagging prophet and a touchingly vulnerable girl - a haunting and compelling heroine framed...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Confederates
    As the Civil War tears America apart, General Stonewall Jackson leads a troop of Confederate soldiers on a long trek towards the battle they believe will be a conclusive victory. Through their hopes, fears and losses, Keneally searingly conveys both the drama and mundane hardship of war, and brings to life one of the most emotive episodes in American history....
    Paperback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Australians
    WINNER, Australian Book Industry Awards General Non-fiction Book of the Year In this widely acclaimed volume, bestselling author Thomas Keneally brings to life the vast range of characters who have formed our national story. Convicts and Aborigines, settlers and soldiers, patriots and reformers, bushrangers and gold seekers, it is from their lives and their stories that he has woven a...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from History & Military

View all
  • Saving Elli
    One child. Two years in hiding. Three lives in mortal danger. In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, near Anne Frank's house, another Jewish girl is hidden. Her name is Elli. Her father has been executed at Mauthausen concentration camp. Her mother is fleeing for her life. Elli is next. To save her, resistance couple Frits and Jo Hakkens must risk everything, concealing her...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Spy and the Traitor
    The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre is a spellbinding Cold War thriller that unravels the true story of Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who risked everything to aid the British in the battle against Soviet oppression. In meticulously researched detail, Macintyre paints a vivid portrait of espionage, double-crossing, and unparalleled bravery, giving readers a riveting glimpse into...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Suicidal Empathy
    The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Man's Search For Meaning
    Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is a profound, thought-provoking memoir and psychological exploration that delves into the harrowing experiences of life in Nazi concentration camps, intertwined with the authorโ€™s groundbreaking theories on existential psychology. The book is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, offering a beacon of hope and a roadmap for finding purpose...
    Paperback
    $1800
    Elsewhere:
    $2100
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Betrayal
    โ€˜Tom Bower is the Inspector Morse of investigative biographers, a fluent, phlegmatic storyteller and a master of intricacies.โ€™ Sunday Times The British Crown is in crisis, with constitutional threats at home and abroad. At a landmark moment in royal history, can King Charles overcome the scandals that blight the Royal family? Can the broken bonds between the Houses of Sussex...
    Paperback
    $3499
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Signed
    New Release
    The Chief and the Empire
    The Chief and the Empire uncovers the extraordinary true tale of Te Tai Tokerau rangatira Te Pahi - the first influential Mฤori leader to cross the Tasman - whose curiosity about the Pฤkehฤ world forged alliances, saved lives, and ultimately cost him his own. On a visit to Sydney in 1805, Te Pahi was feted as a celebrity, building close...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Discipline
    Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...
    Paperback
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Shattered Lands
    'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' โ€“ PETER FRANKOPAN 'This book is a revelation โ€ฆ both original and important' โ€“ MISHAL HUSAIN A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia โ€“ India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and...
    Paperback
    $3699
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Matariki: The Star of the Year
    In mid-winter, Matariki rises in the pre-dawn sky, and its observation is celebrated with incantations on hilltops at dawn, balls, exhibitions, dinners, and a vast number of events. The Matariki tradition has been re-established, and its regeneration coincides with a growing interest in Mฤori astronomy. Still, there remain some unanswered questions about how Matariki was traditionally observed. These include: What...
    Paperback
    $3399
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Goliathโ€™s Curse
    Goliathโ€™s Curse by Luke Kemp offers a radical retelling of human history through the lens of collapse, delving into what this means for our uncertain future. This narrative spans from the dawn of our species to the urgent existential threats of the twenty-first century and beyond. It's grounded in the latest research and a comprehensive database of more than 440...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Good Settler
    โ€˜Where once I saw a view as I drove around the Taranaki coast along State Highway 45, I now see confiscated land from an invasion road. The creation story I used to subscribe to, the one in which hard-working people came here and settled the land, now jars. Weirdly, even the lawn looks different. The form of things just wonโ€™t...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Keep Calm โ€“ We Are Coming
    Keep Calm โ€” We Are Coming briefly backgrounds the New Zealand Special Air Service deployment in Afghanistan โ€” then goes into action. While primarily training Afghan forces, in Kabul the NZSAS had to respond to a series of โ€˜spectacular attacksโ€™ by heavily armed Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests and determined to inflict major casualties. In the words of those who...
    Paperback
    $4000
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 80,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.