The Rise And Fall Of Marvellous Melbourne
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: Fair
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
At the height of the Victorian era, Melbourne was one of the richest, most ambitious cities on earth — a metropolis of grand boulevards, soaring spires, and speculative fever that dared to rival London itself. Graeme Davison's The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne chronicles the spectacular boom-and-bust arc of Australia's imperial city, tracing its transformation from a gold-rush boomtown in the 1880s into a cautionary tale of financial collapse and social upheaval in the 1890s. With meticulous scholarship, Davison reconstructs the social landscape of a city intoxicated by wealth — its land speculators, its civic boosters, its architects of ambition — and details how the inevitable crash shattered the dreams of an entire generation. A landmark work in Australian urban historiography, this study argues that Melbourne's experience was not merely a local drama but a microcosm of the contradictions inherent in colonial capitalism. Davison writes with both analytical precision and narrative verve, weaving together economic history, social biography, and urban geography into a richly textured portrait of a city in flux. His account remains essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how modern Australia was forged in the crucible of hubris and hardship — and leaves the reader wondering whether the lessons of Marvellous Melbourne were ever truly learned.
Author: Graeme Davison
Format: Hardback
Published: 1978, Melbourne University Press
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
At the height of the Victorian era, Melbourne was one of the richest, most ambitious cities on earth — a metropolis of grand boulevards, soaring spires, and speculative fever that dared to rival London itself. Graeme Davison's The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne chronicles the spectacular boom-and-bust arc of Australia's imperial city, tracing its transformation from a gold-rush boomtown in the 1880s into a cautionary tale of financial collapse and social upheaval in the 1890s. With meticulous scholarship, Davison reconstructs the social landscape of a city intoxicated by wealth — its land speculators, its civic boosters, its architects of ambition — and details how the inevitable crash shattered the dreams of an entire generation. A landmark work in Australian urban historiography, this study argues that Melbourne's experience was not merely a local drama but a microcosm of the contradictions inherent in colonial capitalism. Davison writes with both analytical precision and narrative verve, weaving together economic history, social biography, and urban geography into a richly textured portrait of a city in flux. His account remains essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how modern Australia was forged in the crucible of hubris and hardship — and leaves the reader wondering whether the lessons of Marvellous Melbourne were ever truly learned.