Aboriginal Australians

This book is an accurate historical account of the racism against Australia's First Nation People by European settlers.

This book has altered my view of my country. The inferences are casual in places, and summary judgements of people and ideas are numerous. It also tends to become much more polemical as the narrative approaches the present day. Yet, for all that, it has helped this sheltered white Australian peel back a layer of his ignorance of the aboriginal experience.

Whilst one cannot deny that Broome has read his history, and indeed been writing it over nearly 40 years the current volume comes across to this historian and epidemiologist (PhD and M Med Sci) very much as a curate's egg. It's an interesting read, but when one has also looked deeper in to the bucket of resources, the primary sources and others' academic research, one is aware that there are points where Broome's interpretation of chronicle as history is advanced as though it were fact, and indeed there may well be alternative interpretations. I would suggest that a non-professional historian should read it with care, and be careful when basing one's opinions on its statements.

Interesting views