{"product_id":"2026200014951-secondhand-sir-george-arthur-bart-1784-1854","title":"Sir George Arthur, Bart: 1784–1854","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: First ed\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Previous owner\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Small chip at bottom corner - otherwise fine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFew figures of the British colonial era embodied the contradictions of empire as starkly as Sir George Arthur — soldier, administrator, and moral reformer — whose long career spanned some of the most turbulent corners of the nineteenth-century British world. A. G. L. Shaw's authoritative biography chronicles the life of this remarkable and often controversial man, from his early military service through his tenures as Superintendent of British Honduras, Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, and finally Governor of the Bombay Presidency, painting a vivid portrait of colonial governance at its most demanding and morally fraught.\n\nShaw brings rigorous historical scholarship to bear on Arthur's complex legacy — a man at once deeply pious and unyielding in his exercise of authority, whose administration of Van Diemen's Land remains among the most scrutinised chapters in Australian penal history. Through meticulous archival research, Shaw illustrates how Arthur navigated the competing pressures of humanitarianism, imperial policy, and frontier violence, offering a nuanced reassessment that refuses easy judgement. Published by Melbourne University Press, this biography stands as an indispensable work for anyone seeking to understand the human machinery behind Britain's vast colonial enterprise — and the moral cost at which it operated.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49203159466203,"sku":"2026200014951-SECONDHAND","price":50.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/7501baa4-ce24-452d-b479-1d7159298a40.png?v=1788144733","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200014951-secondhand-sir-george-arthur-bart-1784-1854","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}