The last volume in Alan Atkinson’s trilogy, The Europeans in Australia has finally been published. Volume Three: Nation caps a wide-ranging and unique view on the history of Europeans in the land that is now known as Australia.

For more reasons than one, this book is the reason why I am writing and researching history today. I have been extremely fortunate that Alan Atkinson has been a mentor to me for several years and gave me the opportunity to do some work as a research assistant for this book. My current work on the beliefs of Australian soldiers on the front line in World War I stems from discussions Alan Atkinson and I had about this period of history while he was writing the book.

For these reasons what follows is not a book review. This is not an independent critique. Instead I want to share with you why reading the final version of this book has inspired me.

This book has reminded me why I found the long nineteenth century such a compelling period when I was in year twelve. This was an extraordinary century. It was a maelstrom of awfulness and invention. It was an era of emotions and thought, violence and construction. It was revolutionary in most aspects of life.

Read the rest on my blog, Stumbling Through the Past