The Oxford Companion To Australian History

"The Oxford Companion to Australian History draws on the latest scholarship and covers people, institutions, and events that have shaped Australian society, politics and culture. There are entries on politicians, colonisers, visionaries, newspaper barons, industrialists, explorers, writers, artists, and scientists. There are numerous extended essays on key facets of the nation's life--political, social, cultural, scientific, military, and economic. Readers will find incisive entries on matters such as, art, capital punishment, gambling, language, literature, military history, republicanism, and reconciliation."--Publisher's description.

This is a comprehensive guide to Australian military history, broadly conceived within a critical and analytical framework. It contains 800 entries. The editors have sought a balance between various types of entries. Their interpretation of 'military history' is inclusive, extending beyondstandard categories such as battles, campaigns, biographies and weapons, and encompassing entries on the structures of various parts of the defence force organization and their evolution, military language and customs, literature dealing with military themes and treaties, alliances and acts ofparliament that have had a significant impact on the military. Biographical entries vary from long analytical essays on figures such as Thomas Blamey and C.E.W. Bean to much shorter entries on figures of less importance. Not every Chief of General Staff or RAN and RAAF equivalent has an entry: as the editors say, some were undistinguished. All office holdersof significant rank within the three services are listed in an appendix. No attempt is made to duplicate the Australian Dictionary of Biography; nor, except in two instances, have the editors commissioned articles on specific individuals from the historians who wrote those particular entries forADB. The editors' focus is different, combining essential biographical facts with more commentary and analysis. Battles are grouped into overall campaigns, thus providing a more integrated approach enabling greater analysis of broader issues. The Companion offers essential technical details on every significant weapons system employed in the three services since their inception, together with comments thathelp place those systems in an operational and sometimes political context. In addition, there are several longer articles on key aspects of military history and culture. The entry on conscription, while not neglecting past controversies, explains the mechanics of the various methods. There is anabsorbing entry on the ways in which animals have been used by the military. Aboriginal resistance to white invasion is covered in a long entry, as is Aboriginal service in the armed forces. There are also several articles on military influences in Australian culture - war films, literature, art,popular culture. Complete with 100 photographs and 32 maps, the result is a comprehensive work of reference, analysis and interest that will come to be regarded as the authoritative work in the field.

This text provides a comprehensive guide to Australian military history, written by the country's leading military historians. It includes entries on key soldiers, politicians and writers, as well as information on major campaigns, weapons and themes.

The Oxford Companion to Australian Sport appears in a revised, updated and greatly expanded new edition. Produced by the Australian Society for Sports History, this is the first authoritative and encyclopedic reference work on all sports played in Australia. It provides a comprehensive overview of the history and character of the innumerable codes that constitute the Australian sporting character. All sports are covered - not just the major ones like cricket, Australian Rules, lawn tennis, and horse-racing. The Companion offers succinct and informative entries on famous sportsmen and women, and on major institutions, competitions and venues. The Companion also offers thematic essays on crucial aspects of the history, culture and professionalization of sport in Australia. For the first time readers have access to biographies of sporting champions from different codes, all of whom rub shoulders in this literary pantheon. For the second edition, the editors have commissionedfour major new thematic essays: Coaching, Disabled Sportsmen and Women, Regionalism, and the Olympic Winter Games. Seven more sports have been added (badminton, bicycle racing, curling, fives, petanque, ring bowls, and surfing), along with 38 additional clubs. The second edition boasts 240 new biographies. One of its major features is a `list of lists', which provides full details about major competitions such as the Stawell Gift, Davis Cup finals, the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, the Sheffield Shield, Brownlow Medallists - to name just a few of the lists contained in this Appendix. Greatly expanded and offering a readable cultural history of Australian sport, the Oxford Companion to Australian Sport is essential reading for sportsmen and women, administrators, journalists and sports followers.

One of the best ways to ascertain a nation's character is to examine its informal or unofficial culture - its folklore. Australians' sense of nationality is defined not merely in relation to the places they inhabit and the careers they pursue, but also via the slang and languages they speak, the jokes and yarns they exchange, the objects they make, the way they behave towards one another, and the games they play. As Australia approaches the centenary of Federation, it is timely that questions should be asked about the nature of the Australian identity in a changing, urbanized, multicultural society. The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore addresses these questions and illustrates the range and importance of Australia's folkloric heritage. Some of Australia's best-known writers, folklorists and academics have contributed articles to the Companion. Entries range from the descriptive (Gumleaf playing) to the analytical (Popular culture and folklore); from country halls to graffiti to archival preservation of audio tapes; from the bunyip to rebetika (Greek blues); from chain letters to patchwork quilts and Wagga rugs. Also included are biographies of notables in the folklore field, and short entries on myths and heroes such as Ned Kelly, Henry Lawson, 'The Wild Colonial Boy' and 'The Dog on the Tucker Box'. Many entries contain references for those wishing to read further on a particular topic, and an appendix supplies bibliographic guidance for researchers. Until recently, Australia was one of the few countries in the world that tended to disregard the collection, preservation, study and recognition of its folk heritage and its contemporary folklore. As well as being an invaluablereference for students, families and cultural historians, The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore is a milestone in the scholarship of Australian folklore.

Arranged alphabetically, The Oxford Companion to Australian Children's Literature contains 1600 entries covering authors, publishers, illustrators, famous characters, events, institutions, and awards--from Ned Kelly and the Eureka Stockade to Australian comics and the work of Evelyn Goode. The book is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in children's literature or Australian culture.

A comprehensive overview covering indigeneous Australian art, archeological traditions, styles of the contact period, nineteenth-century art trends, and the development of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practices.

Australia's Empire is the first collaborative evaluation of Australia's imperial experience in more than a generation. Bringing together poltical, cultural, and aboriginal understandings of the past, it argues that the legacies of empire continue to influence the fabric of modern Australian society.