In the same vein as the Robert Cowley book on British hypothetical histories, 'What If?' asks the questions about Australia's past. Leading Australian historians including Stuart Macintyre, Marilyn Lake and Ann Curthoys present counterfactual history.
This collection of twelve essays considers several alternative scenarios in Australian history.
- What if France had colonised part of Australia in the eighteenth century?
- What if the ANZACs had played only a minor role in the Gallipoli landing in WW1?
- What if Australia had become a republic at federation?
- What if Gough Whitlam's government had been re-elected after the Dismissal?
- What if Aboriginal Australians had been granted citizenship much earlier?
What new paths might our national history have followed? In this fascinating volume, leading Australian historians search for answers. Together, they reimagine Australia's environment, race relations, art, political life, and national identity, providing a play on actual and possible, action and result, result and consequence that is as rigorous as it is creative.
'What If?' asks how our history has been written, what our nation has become, and what it yet might be.
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