Saint Ned: The Story Of The Near Sanctification Of An Australian Outlaw
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: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Few figures in Australian history have inspired the kind of mythological reverence accorded to Ned Kelly — bushranger, bank robber, and armour-clad outlaw — and Saint Ned confronts that paradox head-on with wit, rigour, and considerable irreverence. Keith Dunstan chronicles the fascinating cultural phenomenon by which a convicted murderer and fugitive from colonial law was elevated, in the court of popular opinion, to the status of a near-saintly folk hero, dissecting the legend with the precision of a historian and the flair of a seasoned journalist. Dunstan presents a sharp and provocative argument about the Australian national character — its deep-seated suspicion of authority, its romanticisation of the underdog, and its peculiar tendency to canonise its outlaws. Drawing on extensive historical research, the narrative is both an incisive biography of Kelly himself and a broader cultural autopsy of a society that continues to wrestle with his legacy. For anyone who has ever wondered how a gallows-bound bushranger became an enduring national symbol, this is the book that demands to be read.
Author: Keith Dunstan
Format: Hardback
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Few figures in Australian history have inspired the kind of mythological reverence accorded to Ned Kelly — bushranger, bank robber, and armour-clad outlaw — and Saint Ned confronts that paradox head-on with wit, rigour, and considerable irreverence. Keith Dunstan chronicles the fascinating cultural phenomenon by which a convicted murderer and fugitive from colonial law was elevated, in the court of popular opinion, to the status of a near-saintly folk hero, dissecting the legend with the precision of a historian and the flair of a seasoned journalist. Dunstan presents a sharp and provocative argument about the Australian national character — its deep-seated suspicion of authority, its romanticisation of the underdog, and its peculiar tendency to canonise its outlaws. Drawing on extensive historical research, the narrative is both an incisive biography of Kelly himself and a broader cultural autopsy of a society that continues to wrestle with his legacy. For anyone who has ever wondered how a gallows-bound bushranger became an enduring national symbol, this is the book that demands to be read.