Books in the Studies in Australian History series

This survey aims to discover why Australia's eight capital cities are situated where they are, and how they were established. Pairs of chapters on each of the state capitals are accompanied by studies of Canberra as federal capital and Darwin as territorial capital.

This 1993 book tells the story of the struggle for female enfranchisement in Australia, from the first stirrings of the movement in 1890 to the nationwide success of the suffragists' campaigns with the granting of the vote by the Commonwealth in 1902. The author considers the international ramifications of the victory and the effect on modern politics.

Cattle has been big business for well over a century in Australia, earning substantial export dollars. Yet the contribution that Aboriginal people have made to this key sector of the economy has not been widely acknowledged. This book uncovers the central role of Aboriginal labour in the Queensland cattle industry from first contact to the present.

Knowing Women is a comprehensive study of female education in nineteenth-century Australia, placed in international perspective. Covering a wide range of topics, Theobald's study is rich in narrative detail. Writing with verve and economy, she shows how education could both open and restrict opportunities for women.

This book offers a fresh and challenging interpretation of the 1950s in Australia, presenting it as a time of great change, brought about by affluence. The book examines how those overseeing society responded to these changes. This is a history of ideas as well as cultural, intellectual and institutional history.

This engaging and provocative work examines the impact of the First World War on Australian attitudes to modernist art. John Williams argues that between 1914 and 1939, Australia became an inward-looking, reactionary society, in contrast with the cosmopolitan openness displayed in the media of the pre-war years.

This book is about historical consciousness and environmental sensibilities in European Australia from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. It is in part a collective biography of the amateur scientists and humanists who shaped the Australian historical imagination and contributed a sense of national identity.

Australia has a strong tradition of labour historiography, which until recently has been focused on the institutions of the labour movement: trade unions and labour parties. This book shifts the focus back to the workplace and looks at how and why the nature of work changed during the period from the late nineteenth century to World War II.

Up until the 1970s, a large proportion of Aboriginal people in Australia had some experience in institutions as part of government assimilation and protection policies. By focusing on three communities in South Australia, Peggy Brock looks at the consequences of this institutionalisation for Aborigines and Australian society in general.

This important study examines the transfer of technology to Australia in the nineteenth century, arguing that this was not a simple relationship of dependency. Using case studies, and considering a range of economic, political and cultural factors, Jan Todd traces a process of creative adaptation to these technologies.

Convict Workers offers an interesting interpretation of Australia's convict past. The convicts sent to Australia were not professional criminals, but ordinary British and Irish men and women. They brought with them a diverse range of useful work skills, essential to the forging of a new economy and society.

This exciting 1995 collection of essays explores the inter-relationship of gender and war in Australia. Its focus is women's and men's experiences in WWI, WWII and the Vietnam War. Challenging the traditional images of men and women in wartime, this book shows that war offers opportunities that erode gender boundaries.

This 1996 book is a powerful and moving history of the treatment of single mothers and their children in Australia. Covering the period from the 1850s through to 1975, when the legal status of illegitimacy was abolished, the authors explore continuity and change in areas such as infanticide, abortion, sex education and marriage.

This 1999 book is a systematic study of assisted emigration from Britain to Australia during the inter-war years. It offers a critical analysis of the relations between the governments of the two countries, and describes an important and overlooked aspect of Australian political and social history.

This first comprehensive history of republican thought and activity in Australia traces debate around an Australian republic from 1788 to the present. Essential reading for all with an interest in political and intellectual history. It will become the essential work on Australian republicanism.

In this imaginative and resonant 1997 book, Irving looks beyond the well-known events, places and figures to locate federation and the constitution in the context of broader social, political and cultural changes. Irving analyses the Constitutional Convention and considers its significance for Australia's future.

State theory suggests that this authority is a right to speak on certain matters in certain ways and to have the audience agree with those statements. This 1991 book shows how in Australia the judiciary became the most powerful arm of government because it has the last say on all issues and in its own language.

The 1890s were a watershed in Australian history, a time of mass unemployment, industrial confrontation and sweeping social change. They also nurtured a flourishing radical culture: anarchists, socialists, single taxers, feminists and republicans. This 1997 book, informed by feminist theory and cultural studies, recreates that political and social vision.

This 1997 book is a mixture of labour history and cultural history which traces the role of the barmaid over 200 years. Kirkby examines the historical importance of pubs and public drinking culture, including its gendered nature, feminist and temparance debates about barmaids, and working conditions and women's activism.

This 1994 book reveals the broader historical and cultural implications of clothes in colonial Australia. It shows that dress was central to the ways class and status were negotiated and the marking out of sexual differences. It helped define morality, the relationship between Europeans and Aboriginal people, and between convict and free.

This book examines the relationship of the Australian colonies with Britain and Empire in the late nineteenth century.

No area of social welfare in Australia has seen as much conflict as health policy. Clashes have involved the medical profession, bureaucrats, friendly societies and political parties. This 1991 history of Australian health policy from 1910 to 1960 provides background to the current debate.

This book, written by a lawyer and unique for its perspective based in both legal and social history, illuminates the important role played by the concept of the rule of law in the transformation of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free society.

This book presents Van Diemen's Land as a case study in nineteenth-century European expansion and imperialism. It treats the first decades of the settlement, encompassing the effects of the European invasion of Aboriginal society, the early history of environmental degradation, the island's society history and the growth of primary industry.

This book throws fresh light on the history of memory, forgetting and colonialism. It considers key moments of historical imagination, and analyses the strange ensemble of elements that constitute Australian History. It is an innovative and stimulating investigation of historical cultures and narratives.

1810-1830 was a crucial period in the development of New South Wales, when the legal foundations of a free-settler and emancipist society were laid. This book explores the relationship of a colonial people with English law and looks at the practice of law among the ordinary population.

Convict Maids analyses the backgrounds of female convicts transported from Britain and Ireland to New South Wales between 1826 and 1840. Drawing on extensive research, the author argues that these women were skilled, literate, young and healthy - qualities that helped put the new colony on its feet.