and_abelard_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Another competent addition to the series. Morgan approaches this precis of the nation-continent with rigour, breadth and empathy. Succinct and readable.
dar__winn's review against another edition
2.0
In 128 pages, I expected this to be a succinct overview of Australian geography, history, politics, resources, trade, animals and plants, people and culture. Well, I guess that is why we have Wikipedia. The first half of the book introduced a lot of topics and jumped all over the place. I did like the attention paid to history, governance, Aboriginal peoples and immigration. The second half was more focused, but dealt with lesser topics. I now know nothing about Australian education, health care, transit, language and slang, holidays or places of interest. I wasn't expecting a tourist guidebook, but a few more nods to modern life would have been welcome. Unfortunately, the series doesn't have a volume on Canada. I would have liked to read it for comparison purposes. I just noticed in the Goodreads author notes that "his particular academic specialism is the history of merchants, ships, foreign trade and ports." That explains a lot about what was included and not included in the book.
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