Australian History
Book Details

A History of Australia

The Earth Abideth for Ever 1851–1888

Volume 4

Manning Clark

Continues the story of Australia from the discovery of gold to the centenary of the coming of European civilization.

Awards

NSW Premier’s Literary Award 1979
FAW Wilke Award 1981

Opinion

‘. . . a novelist, a painter, a theologian and prophet, and from these callings he brings some of the qualities of imagination, the sense of wonder, and the will to create order from chaos, which is as vital to the historian as those other more common and essential skills.’ Geoffrey Blainey

‘. . . He looked for great human issues and presented them as moral dramas.’ Donald Horne

About this Title

This fourth volume of Manning Clark’s great work A History of Australia continues the story from the discovery of gold in February 1851 to the centenary of the coming of European civilization to Australia on 26 January 1888. Its vital theme concerns the debate in Australia about the life of man without God; and the impending breakdown of bourgeois society, succeeded by an age of ruin. The author’s powerful and personal vision informs the whole book.

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; 1. Prologue; 2. The Possessed; 3. One Step Forward for the White Man; 4. Who Would Want to be a Digger?; 5. That Bloody Licence Tax; 6. A Colonial Bourgeoisie; 7. Cheerful and Confident; 8. Glory, Folly and Change; 9. The Bush Barbarians; 10. The Calm-Down Begins; 11. Colonial Democrats; 12. The Kingdom of Nothingness; 13. Uproar in the Bush; 14. The Earth Abideth Forever; 15. Epilogue; Index

About the Author

Manning Clark was senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne, and later, Professor of History in the School of General Studies, Australian National University. In 1972 he became the first Professor of Australian History. In June 1975 Clark was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, in recognition of his writing of the monumental A History of Australia. He was named Australian of the Year for 1980. Professor Clark died in May 1991.

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978-0-522-84147-3