Wowsers
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Yellowed
Markings: Previous owner
In the sunburned moral landscape of colonial and early Federation Australia, a peculiar breed of crusader rose to prominence — the wowser, a figure of relentless, puritanical zeal determined to stamp out the pleasures of drinking, smoking, gambling, and every other vice that made life bearable. Wowsers chronicles the remarkable — and often absurd — careers of the men and women who waged ferocious campaigns against personal liberty in the name of public virtue, painting a vivid portrait of an Australia gripped by temperance movements, censorship battles, and Sunday-closing laws that shaped the nation's social fabric for generations. Keith Dunstan writes with a wickedly dry wit, wielding irony and meticulous research in equal measure to illuminate how profoundly these moralistic crusaders influenced Australian legislation, culture, and identity. The work stands as a landmark of Australian social history, revealing that the tension between individual freedom and collective morality is not a modern invention but a fiercely contested battleground stretching back to the nation's earliest days. One is left to wonder: in an age of new moral panics and renewed calls for censorship, has the wowser truly ever left the building?
Author: Keith Dunstan
Format: Hardback
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Yellowed
Markings: Previous owner
In the sunburned moral landscape of colonial and early Federation Australia, a peculiar breed of crusader rose to prominence — the wowser, a figure of relentless, puritanical zeal determined to stamp out the pleasures of drinking, smoking, gambling, and every other vice that made life bearable. Wowsers chronicles the remarkable — and often absurd — careers of the men and women who waged ferocious campaigns against personal liberty in the name of public virtue, painting a vivid portrait of an Australia gripped by temperance movements, censorship battles, and Sunday-closing laws that shaped the nation's social fabric for generations. Keith Dunstan writes with a wickedly dry wit, wielding irony and meticulous research in equal measure to illuminate how profoundly these moralistic crusaders influenced Australian legislation, culture, and identity. The work stands as a landmark of Australian social history, revealing that the tension between individual freedom and collective morality is not a modern invention but a fiercely contested battleground stretching back to the nation's earliest days. One is left to wonder: in an age of new moral panics and renewed calls for censorship, has the wowser truly ever left the building?