After a lifetime of research and debate on Australian and international history, Blainey is well placed to introduce us to the people who have played a part and to guide us through the events which have created the Australian identity: the mania for spectator sport, the suspicion of the tall poppy, the rivalries of Catholic and Protestant, Sydney and Melbourne, new and old homelands, the conflicts of war abroad and race at home, the importance of technology, the emerging recognition of an Aboriginal past, the successes and failures of the nation.
It is a broad vision of this nation's achievements. It teaches us that we are our past and the future belongs to those who remember.
