20th Century History

**Shortlisted for the 2021 Ned Kelly Award for True Crime** Shocking real-life stories of murderous women who used rat poison to rid themselves of husbands and other inconvenient family members....

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...

A comprehensive and accessible overview and analysis of government policy and practice in relation to the removal of indigenous children in Australia. This major work - the first of its...

George Tallis arrived in Melbourne in 1886 as a seventeen-year-old Irish immigrant, and by the mid-1920s was one of the first 'media giants'. The Silent Showman is a biography of...

This is the seventh of the 1940s and the eighteenth to be released in a series of 30 about life in Australia - one for each year from 1939 to...

*Make sure you read Trent Dalton's irresistible new novel, LOLA IN THE MIRROR, out now* 'Electric' The Times 'Thrilling' New York Times 'Extraordinary' Joanna Cannon THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A MAJOR...

*Make sure you read Trent Dalton's irresistible new novel, LOLA IN THE MIRROR, out now* 'Electric' The Times 'Thrilling' New York Times 'Extraordinary' Joanna Cannon THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A MAJOR...

Lorraine McGee-Sippel was just a small girl when she asked her parents what a half-caste was. It was the 1950s and the first step on a journey that would span...

On The Road: The NRMA'S First 75 Years tells the story of how an idea became a great Australian institution. A little over three quarters of a century ago, a...

The 1992 High Court's Mabo decision has provoked much controversy in contemporary Australia. As the ruling has increasingly become the subject of intense debate throughout the community, the implications of...

Charley Boorman is back in the saddle for a brand-new, adrenaline-fuelled adventure! He begins his journey racing north from Sydney up the Gold Coast, where he hitches a ride in...

New edition of a classic memoir with new Introduction, bibliography, biographical index and four new previously unpublished photographs.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'...

Winner of the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History For the first time, ASIO has opened its archives to an independent historian. With unfettered access to the records, David Horner...

These are some of Australia's finest thinkers analysing the key issues that have had a major impact on Australia over the last turbulent decade, collated by our most influential think...

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...

Geoffrey Serle is a graduate of the University of Melbourne where he taught history before moving to Monash and the Australian National universities. He was general editor of the "Australian...

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...

The Australian Liberal Party is in deep crisis. Losing the 'unloseable' election in 1993 gave it an unenviable record of five successive losses, nearly reversing the record of successes set...

Men at War takes an intimate look at the Australian 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, which was formed in Victoria in 1940 as Australia entered the Second World War. In 1941 and...

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 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....

'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 compelling account of Australia's bloodiest and most significant battle of the Vietnam War, in time for the battle's 50th anniversary, by critically-acclaimed war writer David Cameron. On the afternoon...

'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...

There was a bed, a timber floor, thin tar paper on one side for privacy from the nearby road but nothing else. The flimsiest of 'walls', no pegs or nails...

'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...

'Donald Mackay was not just an innocent victim tragically struck down by a criminal act. He was a casualty of the actual fight against organised crime ... killed on active...

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...

Monash and Chauvel follows the extraordinary campaigns of the two most outstanding battlefield commanders of the First World War across all the Allied armies: John Monash and Harry Chauvel. John...

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 Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History For the first time, ASIO has opened its archives to an independent historian. With unfettered access to the records, David Horner...

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...

They were frequently not just on the front line, but right at the sharp end of the action. They were the legendary sappers, the army engineers, who were literally everywhere...

'All I could do was prod the earth with my bayonet and shine the light to see if I could find anything. It doesn't matter how small the tunnel is...