20th Century History

By January 1943, Australia had emerged from the shadow of war in a strong position. The victories in 1942 at Kokoda, Guadalcanal, Buna, Gona and Sanananda had secured the northern...

"Crisis and Commitments" is the first volume of the "Official History of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts from 1948-1975". This book covers the domestic and international politics of Australia's...

'This story has never been told, because in the secret world we could not, and cannot, share what we do all day, even with family and loved ones.' - from...

ABOUT THESE SERIES ....But after that, I realised that I knew very little about these parents of mine. They had been born about the start of the Twentieth Century, and...

Exploring a wide range of design experience, this publication is an investigation of design issues spanning almost 100 years of Australian history. The author draws on poets, painters, educators, critics,...

When an unassuming young Melbourne woman bumped into a handsome naval lieutenant in a Colombo hotel swimming pool in 1926 she would never have dreamed of one day being the...

With the granting of the vote to women in 1902 Australian suffragist Rose Scott told male politicians that their names would be remembered when the names of the suffragettes had...

Lifting the Lid - a memoir born of adoption is a compelling story told by a distinctive voice with heart and humour about identity, belonging and a woman's search for...

In this book, the residents of Prahran, past and present, tell something of their own stories. These are as diverse as Prahran itself. There are tales of wine and roses...

The story of heroes - the soldiers, sailors and airmen who left New Zealand to do battle as front-line warriors. It is the story of New Zealand's rich record of...

'Beautiful Lies' describes the forces that in less that four decades turned Australia from being dependent upon the United Kingdom to becoming an independent power, which, if it owes any...

Eureka- The Unfinished Revolution ... history comes to life with Peter Fitzsimons. THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER 'Peter FitzSimons is an Australian phenomenon.' The Canberra Times In 1854, Victorian miners fought a...

For decades schoolchildren have made the pilgrimage to the Museum of Victoria to see the final resting place of our greatest racing horse ever. No wonder Phar Lap holds a...

A breathtaking collection of 200 photographs expertly colourised by Aotearoa New Zealand's premier colourist, Brendan Graham, with commentary from award-winning historian Jock Phillips ONZM Our Land in Colour celebrates the...

When an unassuming young Melbourne woman bumped into a handsome naval lieutenant in a Colombo hotel swimming pool in 1926 she would never have dreamed of one day being the...

At last a history that explains how indigenous dispossession and survival underlay and shaped the birth of Australian democracy. The legacy of seizing a continent and alternately destroying and governing...

On the 11th of November 1934 over 300,000 people gathered on the slopes of Melbourne's Domain to witness the dedication of the Shrine. It was the largest state war memorial...

Anzac and Empire is the remarkable story of George Foster Pearce - a carpenter who became one Australia's most influential politicians, and the man central to how Australia planned for,...

Souter describes in fascinating detail the years of rapid and dramatic change from federation in 1901 to the end of the Great War. A new cheaper edition published to coincide...

In the 1950s and 1960s, Keith Smith interviewed a number of "old timers", people whose living memories then stretched as far back as the 1880s, the gold-rush days and the...

In the early twentieth century, there was much speculation about what was going on behind the curtains of bohemia. Perils of the Studio reveals how the romance and mythology of...

New edition of a classic memoir with new Introduction, bibliography, biographical index and four new previously unpublished photographs. 'Hughenden', the seaside mansion of Kathleen's grandparents, provided the 'solid bluestone foundations'...

Emotions are not universal, but are experienced and expressed in diverse ways within different cultures and times. This overview of the history of emotions within nineteenth-century British imperialism focuses on...

Anzac Battlefield: A Gallipoli Landscape of War and Memory explores the transformation of Gallipoli's landscape in antiquity, during the famed battles of the First World War and in the present...

A work of local history chronicling the life and death of the rural township of Lyonville, a sawmilling settlement in the Wombat Forest region of Victoria's Central Highlands, Charlie's Book...

On the streets, under the ground and on the information superhighway, radicals and rebels have made this town their own. The acclaimed Radical Melbourne revealed the hidden history of the...

NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only. A description of our secondhand...

In the wake of the Second World War and the realisation that the Soviet Union had set up extensive espionage networks around the world, Australia responded by establishing its own...

From award-winning author and historian Janet McCalman, the engrossing tale of Tasmanian convict settlers in colonial Victoria It was meant to be 'Victoria the Free', uncontaminated by the Convict Stain....

An immersive journey through the tumultuous past and fascinating present of Australia's nearest neighbours "We are the original people of the region ... This is a black region, it's not...

An extraordinary narrative history of the First Fleet, by the bestselling author of The Forgotten Children. Never before or since has there been an experiment quite as bold as this....

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER 'Fascinatingly imaginative popular history.' Sydney Morning Herald On 25 April 1915, Allied forces landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in present-day Turkey to secure the sea route between...

'An extraordinarily vivid yet authentic account of the birthpangs of a nation. A work of real distinction' Philip Ziegler An award-winning epic on the birth of Australia In 1787, the...

An extraordinary piece of history - the Scottish Highlanders on the frontier of Australia - with introduction from Inga Clendinnen. An extraordinary piece of history - the Scottish Highlanders on...

'A loving history of the Australian people' - Sydney Morning Herald '...displays historical literacy, and plenty of humanity, empathy and compassion, all qualities rare in our public culture to be...

'Roland Perry shows the true picture . . . enjoyable, clearly argued, comprehensive, and highly readable.' - Michael McKernan, Australian Book Review 11 March 1942: The Japanese have stormed the...

'Deeply researched with keen judgements, Traitors and Spies is a devastating indictment of Australia's security services and their political masters in the decades before the formation of ASIO.' - Professor...

Australia was born with its eyes wide open. Although politicians spoke publicly of loyalty to Britain and the empire, in secret they immediately set about protecting Australia's interests from the...

Between 1942 and 1943, Qantas lost eight aircraft during its involvement in Australia's war against the Japanese. Over sixty passengers and crew died as a result. Yet Qantas' exemplary contribution...

The Cold War between the West and the Soviet Bloc didn't end with detente in 1975: it just went underground. Until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, tensions...

'Grose's compassionate, honest and vivid account . deserves to be widely read.'- Sun-Herald The bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942 is the battle Australia tries to forget. Although there...

By 1963, Robert Menzies had been prime minister for thirteen years, Australia had its first troops in Vietnam, and change was in the air. There would soon be street protests...

Winner of the 2015 Queensland Premier's Award for a work of State Significance Winner of the 2016 Magarey Medal for Biography 'Connors lays down the hard truth. Not all our...

To the convicts arriving in Van Diemen's Land, it must have felt as though they'd been sent to the very ends of the earth. In Tasmania's Convicts Alison Alexander tells...