Review by Choice Review
Viewing the European colonization of Australia from the perspective of the participants in Britain's convict transportation system, Hughes adds a significant new understanding to Australia's history. Hughes, art critic for Time magazine, creator-narrator for the BBC/Time-Life television series, The Shock of the New (CH, Jun '81), and author of the Art of Australia (Harmondsworth, rev. ed. 1970), provides an especially well-written, observant, and richly illustrated history of the transformation of Australia's initial European culture. Hughes places emphasis on personalities and values within the contemporary institutions, and on the social strictures characteristic of Georgian and 19th-century England as well as the nascent Australian culture. This perspective provides an unusual freshness in the treatment of the colonial period. Based upon an extensive bibliography, including primary sources in Britain and Australia, Hughes's work is a major contribution to Australian scholarship as well as a superb introduction to a culture produced by a process unique in European colonization. Good maps and 24 pages of illustrations add to the quality of a work likely to be this decade's most influential study on Australian history. Public, community college, and undergraduate libraries.-L.C. Duly, Bemidji State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
``No other country had such a birth,'' says Australian-born Hughes, now art critic for Time magazine, in his definitive history of Great Britain's system of transporting criminals from Britain and Ireland to the unsettled and even unexplored island of Australia. The practice began in January 1788, when 11 ships carrying more than 1,000 convicts sailed into Sydney harbor; the last shipment was made in 1868. In this dense yet swiftly moving and often aggressively engaging account, Hughes places the transportation system into the context of Georgian Britain: the sharp division between haves and have-nots, and the state of crime in the nation and propositions for its cure. Hughes also assesses the exile program in terms of the history of penal rehabilitation as well as in light of what it meant in Australian national development. Notes, bibliography; to be indexed. Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection. BH. 994 Australia History 1788-1900 / Australia Exiles History / Penal colonies Australia History [OCLC] 86-45272
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
For 80 years between 1788 and 1868 England transported its convicts to Australia. This punishment provided the first immigrants and the work force to build the colony. Using diaries, letters, and original sources, Hughes meticulously documents this history. All sides of the story are told: the political and social reasoning behind the Transportation System, the viewpoint of the captains who had the difficult job of governing and developing the colonies, and of course the dilemma of the prisoners. This is a very thorough and accurate history of Australian colonization written by the author of the book and BBC/Time-Life TV series The Shock of the New . A definitive work that is an essential purchase for both public and academic libraries. BOMC and History Book Club main selections. Judith Nixon, Purdue Univ. Libs., W. Lafayette, Ind. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A massive, agglomerative history of the convict deportation system that peopled Australia. The book is a departure in subject matter for Hughes, who, though a native of Sydney, is better known as the longtime art critic for Time and author of The Shock of the New. This history is nonetheless commendable, synthesizing scholarship and primary sources into a comprehensive, readable account. Hughes approaches the subject by aspects rather than strict chronology. Chapters focus on issues: the ocean passage, the Georgian idea of a ""criminal class,"" the women and sexual life of the colonies, those who tried to escape, etc. No gloss is put upon Australia's ignoble founding, and, in fact, the litany of starvation, crime, floggings, sadism and debauchery gives the book a somber mien. Those who would sanitize the history--by pointing out the pettiness of the emigrants' crimes, the British intent to found a strategic outpost, the political criminals, etc.--are disproven with no regret. When Hughes revises overly dark perspectives, it is small improvement. For example, the women convicts were not, as is often supposed, all prostitutes. However, that impression came about mostly because of the brutalized life Australia forced upon them. This grim history is given life by the remarkable characters and anecdotes that Hughes details. Among these is Mary Bryant, ""the Girl From Botany Bay,"" who led an escape attempt with her husband and two children, sailing over 3,000 miles in a small stolen boat, eventually to be recaptured, but finally pardoned. Another method Hughes uses is providing the argot of the era--strange, wonderful words that somehow revivify the old stories. On the other hand, the various cruel details of the convicts' degradation might have been substantially winnowed without any loss in impact or reader compassion. Though the subject is unremittingly grim, this is a fine evocation of a unique chapter in the history of social order and social evolution in a faraway land. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
