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textpublishing's review against another edition
5.0
‘I cannot imagine that a more vivid or beguiling account of the origins of British Australia will ever be written…an extraordinary achievement.’
Robert Manne
‘Because we know the outcome, the story has a deep poignancy. But Clendinnen does not just plod through the familiar sad story of oppression. Hers is a lyrical account that draws us into its passionate heart.’
New Zealand Herald
‘Wonderfully brave and stylishly written…sometimes provocative, but startling in the way it entertainingly refreshes our history.’
Courier-Mail
‘A masterful book, elegantly conceived and written with narrative brilliance. Clendinnen is witty, incisively poetic and flawed with humanity.’
Age
‘Enthralling, and masterful in its prose…Clendinnen’s characters come vividly to life in her poetically written and compelling story.’
Toowoomba Chronicle
Robert Manne
‘Because we know the outcome, the story has a deep poignancy. But Clendinnen does not just plod through the familiar sad story of oppression. Hers is a lyrical account that draws us into its passionate heart.’
New Zealand Herald
‘Wonderfully brave and stylishly written…sometimes provocative, but startling in the way it entertainingly refreshes our history.’
Courier-Mail
‘A masterful book, elegantly conceived and written with narrative brilliance. Clendinnen is witty, incisively poetic and flawed with humanity.’
Age
‘Enthralling, and masterful in its prose…Clendinnen’s characters come vividly to life in her poetically written and compelling story.’
Toowoomba Chronicle
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book back in 2008, and below is the review I wrote then and posted on Amazon.com. In the (almost) ten years since I read this book, we've made less progress than I'd hoped for, then.
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`People always look most alike when we know them least'
This is a thoughtful, insightful look at the initial contacts between Australia's indigenous people and members of the First Fleet in 1788. There is an intense curiosity, both within this book and in the snippets of evidence from the primary documents Ms Clendinnen refers to, about the meanings of the human interactions observed. Reading through the snippets from Watkin Tench, David Collins, William Bradley and others offers insights into the impacts of foreign cultures on each other.
`Our first shared Australian story is a tragedy of animated imagination, determined friendship and painfully dying hopes.'
One of the tragedies is in the way we view history. Written records, with their framework of events and theories of causation speak for themselves in ways that oral traditions, especially by those dispossessed, often cannot.
At the end of her book, Ms Clendinnen writes: `Here in this place, I think, we are all Australians now.' I am not sure that we are there yet, but there is renewed hope that we can be.
This book is well worth reading for its insights into those initial contacts.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
`People always look most alike when we know them least'
This is a thoughtful, insightful look at the initial contacts between Australia's indigenous people and members of the First Fleet in 1788. There is an intense curiosity, both within this book and in the snippets of evidence from the primary documents Ms Clendinnen refers to, about the meanings of the human interactions observed. Reading through the snippets from Watkin Tench, David Collins, William Bradley and others offers insights into the impacts of foreign cultures on each other.
`Our first shared Australian story is a tragedy of animated imagination, determined friendship and painfully dying hopes.'
One of the tragedies is in the way we view history. Written records, with their framework of events and theories of causation speak for themselves in ways that oral traditions, especially by those dispossessed, often cannot.
At the end of her book, Ms Clendinnen writes: `Here in this place, I think, we are all Australians now.' I am not sure that we are there yet, but there is renewed hope that we can be.
This book is well worth reading for its insights into those initial contacts.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
caribouffant's review against another edition
4.0
They danced, they speared, they loved and they warred. They misunderstood each other in most aspects, yet some tried hard to overcome their differences.
"Man proceeds in a fog. But when he looks back to judge people of the past, he sees no fog on their path. From his present, which was their faraway future, their path looks perfectly clear to him, good visibility all the way. Looking back he sees the path, he sees the people proceeding, he sees their mistakes, but not the fog.”
"Man proceeds in a fog. But when he looks back to judge people of the past, he sees no fog on their path. From his present, which was their faraway future, their path looks perfectly clear to him, good visibility all the way. Looking back he sees the path, he sees the people proceeding, he sees their mistakes, but not the fog.”
ninareeds's review against another edition
3.0
Not bad for a history textbook. Definitely provides interesting insight on the first meetings between the people two very different cultures.
archytas's review against another edition
4.0
When Clendinnen published this in 2002, it presented a startingly new take on the story of Sydney Town and the first fleet. By revisiting the diaries and journals of First Fleet officers, and applying modern anthropological insight to them, Clendinnen posits a new view of 'first contact', the incursion of the British onto the land of the Eora nations.
Clendinnen makes some major insightful leaps here, one it now seems incredible it took so long to get to, especially the understanding of the spearing of Governor Philip as a ritual punishment. However, in the 15 years after publication, this work has advanced even further. Assumptions Clendinnen makes about the primacy of male food provision, minimising the traditional role of women in fishing, have been challenged. Clendinnen also relies mainly on published accounts, and wasn't able to use Dawes' diaries to full effect. While significant in its time, and such an accessible and heartfelt read, I'd recommend Grace Karsken's the Colony these days as a more insightful history.
But as an achievement, particularly from a historian never focused on Australian history, it is quite something.
Clendinnen makes some major insightful leaps here, one it now seems incredible it took so long to get to, especially the understanding of the spearing of Governor Philip as a ritual punishment. However, in the 15 years after publication, this work has advanced even further. Assumptions Clendinnen makes about the primacy of male food provision, minimising the traditional role of women in fishing, have been challenged. Clendinnen also relies mainly on published accounts, and wasn't able to use Dawes' diaries to full effect. While significant in its time, and such an accessible and heartfelt read, I'd recommend Grace Karsken's the Colony these days as a more insightful history.
But as an achievement, particularly from a historian never focused on Australian history, it is quite something.
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