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: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the height of the Victorian era, no city in the Southern Hemisphere burned brighter than Melbourne — a metropolis of staggering ambition, ostentatious wealth, and breathtaking hubris. Graeme Davison's landmark work chronicles the spectacular boom and catastrophic bust of a city that once dared to call itself the Paris of the South Pacific, tracing how Melbourne transformed from a raw colonial settlement into one of the world's great cities before the speculative frenzy of the 1880s sent it spiralling into economic ruin. With the precision of a historian and the narrative drive of a storyteller, Davison maps the social, political, and architectural forces that shaped Marvellous Melbourne, painting a vivid portrait of a society intoxicated by its own promise. Davison's scholarship is both rigorous and deeply humane, situating Melbourne's story within the broader currents of Victorian capitalism, land speculation, and colonial identity. His analysis of the city's boosterism — the relentless self-promotion that masked profound structural fragility — offers a cautionary tale that resonates far beyond the streets of nineteenth-century Melbourne. A cornerstone of Australian urban history, this work presents an indispensable lens through which to understand not just a city, but the restless, acquisitive spirit of an age — and one is left to wonder whether the lessons of Marvellous Melbourne were ever truly learned.
Author: Graeme Davison
Format: Paperback
Published: 1978, Melbourne University Press
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the height of the Victorian era, no city in the Southern Hemisphere burned brighter than Melbourne — a metropolis of staggering ambition, ostentatious wealth, and breathtaking hubris. Graeme Davison's landmark work chronicles the spectacular boom and catastrophic bust of a city that once dared to call itself the Paris of the South Pacific, tracing how Melbourne transformed from a raw colonial settlement into one of the world's great cities before the speculative frenzy of the 1880s sent it spiralling into economic ruin. With the precision of a historian and the narrative drive of a storyteller, Davison maps the social, political, and architectural forces that shaped Marvellous Melbourne, painting a vivid portrait of a society intoxicated by its own promise. Davison's scholarship is both rigorous and deeply humane, situating Melbourne's story within the broader currents of Victorian capitalism, land speculation, and colonial identity. His analysis of the city's boosterism — the relentless self-promotion that masked profound structural fragility — offers a cautionary tale that resonates far beyond the streets of nineteenth-century Melbourne. A cornerstone of Australian urban history, this work presents an indispensable lens through which to understand not just a city, but the restless, acquisitive spirit of an age — and one is left to wonder whether the lessons of Marvellous Melbourne were ever truly learned.