The Words That Made Australia

This is not a book of documents, snippets or worthy speeches. Instead it presents the original essays and the moments of insight that told us what Australia is and could be. These are the essential statements - from historians, reporters, novelists, mavericks and visionaries - that take us from Federation to the present-day, and tell a story of national self-discovery. There is the Frenchman who saw that Australia was a 'workingman's paradise', and the historian who explained why. The two reporters who realised the true significance of Gallipoli and conveyed it to the nation. Russel Ward on the Australian Legend, Robin Boyd on the Australian Ugliness, Donald Horne on the Lucky Country, W.E.H. Stanner on the Great Australian Silence and Anne Summers on Manzone Country. Real Matildas, Cultural Cringers, Future Eaters and Forgotten People - and much more. Memorably written and cohesive, this is the essential sourcebook of the words that made Australia.

 Robert Manne is professor of politics at La Trobe University and a regular writer for the Monthly. His books include Making Trouble: Essays Against the New Australian Complacency and, as editor, The Australian Century and W.E.H. Stanner: The Dreaming & Other Essays. Chris Feik is editor of Quarterly Essay, associate editor of the Monthly and publisher at Black Inc. Miles Franklin

Albert Metin

Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett

Keith Murdoch

Maybanke Anderson

D.H. Lawrence

W.K. Hancock

P.R. Stephensen

Vance Palmer

Robert Menzies

A.A. Phillips

Manning Clark

Russel Ward

Barry Humphries

Robin Boyd

Donald Horne

W.E.H. Stanner

Humphrey McQueen

Hugh Stretton

Anne Summers

Miriam Dixson

Bernard Smith

Paul Kelly

Geoffrey Blainey

Tim Flannery

David Malouf

Inga Clendinnen

Noel Pearson

Judith Brett

Ghassan Hage