Going It Alone: Australia's National Identity In The Twentieth Century
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: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
What does it truly mean to be Australian? Going It Alone: Australia's National Identity in the Twentieth Century confronts this deceptively complex question with rigorous intellectual clarity, tracing the evolution of a distinctly Australian character as it emerged from colonial roots into a confident, independent national consciousness. W. F. Mandle chronicles the social, cultural, and political forces that shaped the Australian identity across the twentieth century — from the mythology of the bush and the battler, to sport as a national religion, to the tensions between cultural cringe and fierce patriotic pride. Mandle argues with compelling authority that Australian identity is not a fixed inheritance but a living, contested construct — one perpetually shaped by class, geography, immigration, and the lingering shadow of Britain. His prose is lucid and accessible, blending historical analysis with cultural commentary in a way that illuminates the contradictions at the heart of Australian nationhood. For anyone seeking to understand the spirit that drives this nation — its stubbornness, its egalitarianism, its wary independence — this work remains as provocative and relevant as ever.
Author: W. F. Mandle
Format: Hardback
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
What does it truly mean to be Australian? Going It Alone: Australia's National Identity in the Twentieth Century confronts this deceptively complex question with rigorous intellectual clarity, tracing the evolution of a distinctly Australian character as it emerged from colonial roots into a confident, independent national consciousness. W. F. Mandle chronicles the social, cultural, and political forces that shaped the Australian identity across the twentieth century — from the mythology of the bush and the battler, to sport as a national religion, to the tensions between cultural cringe and fierce patriotic pride. Mandle argues with compelling authority that Australian identity is not a fixed inheritance but a living, contested construct — one perpetually shaped by class, geography, immigration, and the lingering shadow of Britain. His prose is lucid and accessible, blending historical analysis with cultural commentary in a way that illuminates the contradictions at the heart of Australian nationhood. For anyone seeking to understand the spirit that drives this nation — its stubbornness, its egalitarianism, its wary independence — this work remains as provocative and relevant as ever.