LunaLee Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 My cousin is traveling to Australia this summer and would like to read up on its history before he goes. Do you have any reccomendations for some books he can read. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Where is he going? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrale Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Depending on the age I loved Bill Bryson's book about going to Australia. His take on things made me realize a little how Americans view Australians. It is called In a Sunburned Country I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunaLee Posted January 23, 2014 Author Share Posted January 23, 2014 Ok, I'll tell him about Bryson's book. He's 19 and well read, so he can pretty much handle anything. Rosie, he's going to Perth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 A second vote for Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunaLee Posted January 24, 2014 Author Share Posted January 24, 2014 Thanks. He's really interested in Australia's history if anyone has some recommendations for that as well. I love this kid. I think he's my long lost child, lol..He joined the Latin club at his college, just because. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 He's really interested in Australia's history if anyone has some recommendations for that as well. My husband enjoyed Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding some fifteen years ago. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Kind of hard to say because most Australians hate Australian history. :p Rabbit Proof Fence is a good one. Either the book or the movie. My sister recommends this: http://www.historychannel.com.au/tv-shows/813/tony-robinson-explores-australia 'Alice on the Line' would be a worthwhile read if he can find it, and 'For the Term of His Natural Life' is ugly, but a classic for good reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrale Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I wouldn't say we hate it. But our history education is pretty skimpy. All American kids learn all the presidents. I never once learnt who the Australian Prime Minsters were. I only know the first one because there was an ad back in the 90s about how p Australians don't know their first Prime Minster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 who cares about a list of Aussie prime minsters??? I learned heaps of Aussie history without having to learn about all those boring people Book recommendations : biographies A Fortunate life by A. B. Facey, Over the Top with Jim by Hugh Lunn Novels For the Term of HIs Natural Life A Town Like Alice explorers to look up Burk and Wills Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrale Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I did history until 12th grade and barely touched Australian Hisrory. We seemed to just learn the same things over and over. Captain Cook, Penal colonies, Ned Kelly, Botany Bay. Explorers, Gallopoli, Eureka Stockade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 They're not all boring! I was in Canberra in 2001 and got to see a jolly little play about Federation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deee Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Try Jackie French's Fair Dinkum Histories. There are 5 or 6 of them, aimed at about year 7 reading level, so he should be able to chew through them quickly. They are humorous but pithy and the author doesn't mince words when she tells both sides of a story. The books span pre1788 and white invasion, through to modern Australia. If he read them he'd have a better grounding in Australian history than lots of Aussies If he has the time and inclination, he could watch The First Australians, a frank and gruelling miniseries about the treatment of Indigenous Australians. Read anything (except perhaps the Buggalugs Bum Thief) by Tim Winton, a superb Perth-based author. Cloudstreet is probably his best known. Things to check on Wiki: cricket, Aussie Rules, mining boom in Western Australia, ANZAC, sharks Perth isn't like lots of Australia. While it has a penal colony past, it's geographic isolation has meant that it developed its own identity. It is a recent boom town: lots of new wealth and "immigrants" from the eastern states. Perth is buzzing, but it has more than its fair share of Indigenous poverty. Be prepared to see that on the streets. Place to go: Kings Park, Fremantle, Margaret River, the Kimberly, Listen to some good Aussie music: in loose chronological order (and showing my age): AC/DC, Cold Chisel, INXS, Powderfinger, John Butler (Perth-based), Angus and Julia Stone, Gotye, Megan Washington, Busby Marou, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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