The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding by Robert Hughes Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding
Book Review: Informative but difficult read
Summary: 3 Stars
It took me over a year to finally get through this book!!!! I found the subject matter interesting and Australia rise from its very humble beginnings is impressive. Still the book certainly drags at points.Book Review: An unsurpassed record of Australia's convict history
Summary: 5 Stars
As a Tasmanian, I am well aware through association that a most terrible chapter of our early history was sadly missing in previously recorded historical research. Robert Hughes has succeeded in bridging this enormous and terrifying gap with his monumental work, The Fatal Shore. Hughes has managed to capture the sadism, the depravity, the abject horror of a shocking beginning of which few emerging nations can boast. His exacting and at times ground breaking research into convict history is magnificent, as is his fascinating portrayal of all manner of characters who emerged from the dung hill and cesspool that constituted everyday life in colonial Australia in the first instance. From the first convict ship to the last, he moves with methodical precission through the pages of history and its gory details. He truly exposes the establishment for what it really was, a cruel, corrupt and wicked system that made mockery of humanity. The early history of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) is shocking and such was its infamy that the truth was hidden and locked away for all of 150 years from the general public. After many lesser attempts to update the record, Hughes has finally succeeded in swashbuckling fashion, laying bare the multitude of long dreaded sins and shame in a fashion which few others would have dared. I doubt that any author can better The Fatal Shore. The truth has been laid bare in as raw a form as could possibly be, and this account makes compelling reading for all manner of readers with an interest in such matters. A thoroughy fascinating read that I can absolutely recommend.Book Review: "The Fatal Shore" must not be missed
Summary: 5 Stars
You could not write fiction that is as entertaining as Robert Hughes' excellent research on the founding and colonization of Australia. This is one of the best historical pieces written regarding British social evolution in the 1700's ~ from the vantage point of being entertaining, usefully informative, and engaging. Excellent commentary on why "transportation" happened as it did, and why Australia became the destination ~ the reasons are social, cultural, as well as political. And fun facts abound ~ the British Colonies in America preceded Australia as the British destination for transported convicts (albeit in a different model), Norfolk Island had immense and surprising strategic value for all world navies because of two critical resources, the perception of Australia in the 1700's was far from glowing for many reasons, etc. If a history book can be a page-turner, this is the one that proves the rule.Book Review: Australian history by an Australian
Summary: 5 Stars
An absolutley facinating history of Australia as it truly was; brutal, repressed and a perfect example of the short sighted colonial British empire. This is the history they do not teach us Australians as children, no founding fathers such as the Americans (that came in 1901 for us), no wars of independance, jus a brutal slave colony of the United Kingdom.
Beautifully written from the first white discovery of this barren land. You Americans think your settlers had it tough, read this! Hardships greater than Russian prisons, where the white man was a slave not so different to the American negro.
Learn something about the rest of the world. We did not have wild west, we had a wild continent.
Book Review: Remarkable but Fatally Flawed
Summary: 2 Stars
Hughes is a powerful writer, and he did a prodigious amount of research for this book. As noted by other reviewers, it is a great narrative and an enjoyable read. It is indeed history, of a sort, but it is far from a balanced view of the events it describes. Enjoy this book by all means, but don't think that you have a comprehensive or well-rounded understanding of the events that it describes. His opening chapters on England are astoundingly biased. Although amply supported by (selective) facts, he is clearly intent on telling a story and not portraying events. Two examples- he calls English criminal law in the late eighteenth century "judicial terrorism," and trots out numerous examples of what, today, one would view as horrifying. However, he notes in a third of a sentence that English law was considerably more "advanced" than that of the rest of Europe, and then dismisses this thought. Another typical ploy is shown when he compares ship tonnes per person during transportation to that of "a modern passenger liner," which is ludicrous. Unfortunately for him, a comparison to British (not English, but that's another argument for another day) Naval standards or American passenger standards of the day didn't support his point as well, so he went for the cheap thrill. Nothing wrong with that, on one hand, but people tend to view this book as scholarly, not polemical.