A New Life in our History: the settlement of Australia and New Zealand: volume I The Fatal Shore ? (1780s to 1830s)

by Justin Cahill

Overview

A New Life in our History offers a fresh view of Australian and New Zealand history. It tells, for the first time, the epic story of their settlement from the perspective of ordinary people.

Beginning with the arrest of Solomon Bockerah and his transportation to Sydney on the notorious Second Fleet, it follows the spectacular rise and fall of the emancipist Sydney merchant John Laurie, the arrival of the Lang family on the ‘First Four Ships’ to Canterbury, the Nicholson family’s survival of the infamous Highland Clearances and the establishment of the Croydon Bush village settlement in rural Southland.

It also tells how their descendants answered the call of King and Country, following the men who served at Gallipoli and along the Western Front during World War I and those who served during the Battle of Britain and Italian campaign during World War II.

Over twenty years in the making, A New Life in our History is an unprecedented attempt to show how ordinary people make history happen.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940045806459
Publisher:	Justin Cahill
Publication date:	04/01/2014
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	252 KB

About the Author

Welcome to my Smashwords profile.

I am a New Zealand-born writer, based in Sydney. My main interests are nature and history.

My thesis was on the negotiations between the British and Chinese governments over the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997. It was used as a source in Dr John Wong’s Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism and the Arrow War (1856-1860) in China, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998, the standard work on that conflict.

I wrote a column on the natural history of the Wolli Creek Valley for the Earlwood News (sadly, now defunct) between 1992 and 1998.

My short biography of the leading Australian ornithologist, Alfred North (1855-1917), was published in 1998.

I write regular reviews on books about history for my blog,’ Justin Cahill Reviews’ and Booktopia. I’m also a regular contributor to the Sydney Morning Herald's 'Heckler' column.

My current projects include completing the first history of European settlement in Australia and New Zealand told from the perspective of ordinary people and a study of the extinction of Sydney’s native birds.

After much thought, I decided to make my work available on Smashwords. Australia and New Zealand both have reasonably healthy print publishing industries. But, like it or not, the future lies with digital publishing.

So I’m grateful to Mark Coker for having the vision to establish Smashwords and for the opportunity to distribute my work on it.