The Fatal Shore
The epic of Australia's founding
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3.8 • 39 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hughes, art critic at Time, offers a vast and entertaining history of his native land's early years as a "thief colony,'' i.e., the place to which, beginning in 1788, Britain transported some 160,000 convicts. ``The book abounds with stories of these exiles,'' PW wrote.
Customer Reviews
A Masterpiece
This is the best single volume history of the transportation system that built Australia from a land of Aborigines to a thriving British colony. Anyone interested in penal reform, prison reform of immigration should read it.
Rich vocabulary
A delightful read and the best resource I ever found for building my vocabulary
The FatalShore
I was surprised that the average rating of this book was so low. Australia is unique among nations in the manner of its founding and settlement. You will find no “Crocodile Dundee” theatrics here. This book is the most comprehensive treatment of the subject of the founding of Australia. It was not necessarily a pretty picture but sheer determination.