The Fatal Shore

by Robert Hughes

¥850

ISBN: 0394506685
HISTORY: HARDCOVER: used - acceptable
ENGLISH

Draws on diverse original materials to recount the European settlement of Australia, from the 1788 landing of the first prison fleet to 1868.

Nearly 700 pages, this is the epic of Australia's founding.

In popular culture: The book is featured in the Netflix TV series, Marvel's The Punisher, in the episode titled "My Brother's Keeper". One of the main characters, Amy (Giorgia Whigham), is seen reading it. U.S. comedian Doug Stanhope has mentioned the book numerous times during interviews. Notably during The Joe Rogan Experience podcast #1144 (@56 minutes), where he comments on the number of pages and remarks on the level of brutality ever present in Australia’s convict past.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • This incredible true history of the colonization of Australia explores how the convict transportation system created the country we know today.

"One of the greatest non-fiction books I’ve ever read ... Hughes brings us an entire world." —Los Angeles Times

Digging deep into the dark history of England's infamous efforts to move 160,000 men and women thousands of miles to the other side of the world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Hughes has crafted a groundbreaking, definitive account of the settling of Australia.

Tracing the European presence in Australia from early explorations through the rise and fall of the penal colonies, and featuring 16 pages of illustrations and 3 maps, The Fatal Shore brings to life the history of the country we thought we knew.

Adjectives fail me to describe the stupendous scope and brilliance of this book. Epic is right. It is a history of early Australia, on the one hand of the native inhabitants, the Aborigines, and on the other, of the wretched souls who found themselves transported to the other side of the world, and who quickly supplanted them. The good the bad and the ugly. The author's detailed researches appear to have left no stone unturned, as he reveals even the taboo aspects of multitudes of desperate humanity forced to live together in unsanitary and inhuman conditions. He also describes the British regime in Australia as the closest thing to a police state that ever existed in British territory, which after reading the book, I can only agree with. But it is not only the scope, detail and understanding of the book that makes it remarkable. It is highly readable, indeed hard to put down. I knew very little about Australia before I read this book, which I bought because it was recommended on Channel 4 News on the occasion of the author's death in 2012. Now I feel I have a thorough understanding of the issues and events that made Australia and Australians what they are today.

HISTORYSHOCKING

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