Aboriginal Australians: A History Since 1788

It's informative and... very moving. I learned so much about Aboriginal Australians and Australia. Thank you for writing THEIR story...

Without being an expert, the book appeared to be a fair appraisal of a complex situation. However, With only about 2% of the population being indigenous it is quite incredulous that the Australian government and its people cannot find it in their hearts to restore the dignity of a great race.

This book is interesting but a bit tedious. It goes into great detail which at first is interesting but the subject matter is very repetitive causing my interest to lessen to the point where I began skimming rather than reading. The Aborigines were treated horribly as were the slaves in the United States. Basically this statement is repeated in many variations over and over.

This book does a good job of covering a very complex topic from a perspective often not taken. I found it to be well balanced, giving credit and culpability in equally conservative degrees. If you are looking into the subject of Christianity and its encounter with Aboriginal Australia this is a great resource. I used it along with many others to write a large research paper, and this was one of my favorites to both read and quote.

This book has given me an insight to the atrocities that Aborignal people lived through in the early days of "our" colony. The British treated them in such a way that has affected them right up until this day and age. I am grateful that Richard Broome has written such an honest book.

Was a better and historical version of Australia than the ones I had read. Gave me a clearer picture of the Aboriginies of Australia.

Good book...

I bought this book before going to Australia. The Aboriginal Australians are incredibly interesting: 500,000 people living on the narrow strip of land around the seacoast and no warfare. Broome's work is rather tedious and dry at times, but he is a meticulous researcher so you won't get a bunch of rumors and legends. Not an easy read, but an informative one.

Thorough, well documented account of first nation encounter with ' Western' culture. Optimistic about aboriginal ability to live with modern world, pessimism underlying about seemingly endless white Australian racism, which, he points out early, is a branch of global capitalism. Lovely language and lucid style, punctuated with (first)Australian expressions. The kindle onboard dictionary has no definition for ' humpy' but such meanings soon become clear from context and add to the (God forbid) charm of an enjoyable but sobering work where history of communities mixes nicely with accounts of individuals who made their mark or simply exemplify the topic under discussion.

Bought as a gift for someone who has a strong interest in this area, they loved this book and the quality of the book was great

Bought this as a Christmas gift. Very well received thank you

Bought as girft and the recipient loves it.

However, as a non-australian, there were some periods of general Australian history I was not familiar with. That certainly is not the books fault though! I would recommend this book to anyone interested in aboriginal cultures

Oft wird die Perspektive der australischen Aboriginies nur beiläufig oder teilweise garnicht beleuchtet. Hier ein Buch, welches sich hauptsächlich den Ureinwohnern Australiens widmet. Gut zu lesen und leicht verständlich.

This is a well crafted, carefully considered and heart searing piece of history writing.Broome clearly has a mission to organise the long and terrible mistreatment of his fellow Australians into a comprehensible narrative. Rednecks everywhere will hate it. They will claim that the blacks were (and are) just as much culpable players in the hard business of forging a modern capitalist nation-state as any fly-bitten outback Aussie, with a gun in one hand and a chip on the adjacent shoulder.Fair dinkum? Not really. Not if you just try this little exercise: Put the boot on the other foot...Suppose a corresponding invasive force of foreigners had landed at Brighton Beach on the Sussex coast two hundred odd years ago, and got decidedly leery with the locals - in fact downright bolshie - started doing a bit of "landscaping" work, got even busier meddling, peddling, and telling folk what's bloody what from here on in, just exactly what they can and can't do under pain of overt physical violence and... Oh yes, your religion is a total pile of pants, and we're gonna destroy it. You get the drift?Now, to the nearest micro-second please: How long before white folkes start screaming blue bloody murder?Aboriginal people didn't get much of a chance to ponder this question as Brits brought with them, amongst other things, a raft of virulent and infectious diseases, small pox, the clapp, measles, common colds, influenza and others, all brewed up in the filth and squalor of underclass Europe, thence to be spread with gay abandon. Devastating inroads were thus made into the indigenous populations, and what viruses didn't despoil, grog (booze) bullets and Christian missionaries pummelled relentlessly. Broome doesn't stint on details here; women and children were particular targets for sexual abuse and cultural bludgeoning.Interestingly, on the Bicentenial day back in 1988 an Aboriginal man tried this stunt on the sands at Dover, pitching up a flag and proclaiming this as now 'Abbo' territory, y'know - just to make the point : How would we like it? Yeah, yeah, we chuckled; but see... We've got Trident nuclear missiles and we'll fry your arse.So that's your history lesson, right there...

Disappointed. Expected more of a storyline than a history narrative. Couldn't finish as found too boring. What a waste of money!