The War of the Worlds

Second-Hand

As New Condition

Short Black 3 - Short Blacks are gems of recent Australian writing – brisk reads that quicken the pulse and stimulate the mind.

In The War of the Worlds, Noel Pearson considers the shadow over Australia's history- the question of genocide, in early Tasmania and elsewhere.

'How many Australians born in the 137 years since Truganini's death learnt her legend and scarcely thought deeper about the enormity of the loss she represented, and the history that led to it? Her spirit casts a long shadow over Australian history, but we have nearly all of us found a way to avert our eyes from its meaning.'

With eloquence and passion, he explores the 'emotional convulsions of identification and memory' that he feels on encountering these events. Re-reading Dickens and Darwin, Pearson acknowledges the 'fatal logic' of the colonial project, and seeks to draw out its meaning for Australians today.

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