Books by Henry Reynolds

Influential historian Henry Reynolds pulls the rug from legal and historical assumptions in a book that's about the present as much as the past. His work shows exactly why Australia's national war memorial must acknowledge the frontier wars, why we must change the date of our national day, and why treaties are important.

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 This Whispering in Our Hearts constructed an alternative history of Australia.

''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 to fighting in Britain''s wars overseas, and forged a national identity around it. By 1902, when the Boer War ended, a mythology about our colonial soldiers had already been crafted, and a dangerous precedent established.This is Henry Reynolds at his searing best, as he shows how the Boer War left a dark and dangerous legacy, demonstrating how those beliefs have propelled us into too many unnecessary wars - without ever counting the cost.