The Vanished Land: Disappearing dynasties of Victoria's Western District by Richard Zachariah
Category: History
The Vanished Land is the Western District of Victoria stripped of its identity, its social elite of grazing dynasties departed for their own reasons.This melancholy exodus has increased recently as the myriad pressures of holding inherited land have become intolerable in a nation never intimidated by di ...Show more
An Awkward Truth: The Bombing of Darwin, February 1942 by Peter Grose
Category: Military | Reading Level: very good
The compelling and very human story of the first foreign assault on Australian soil since settlement--the attack on Darwin by the Japanese in February, 1942 The bombing of Darwin on February 19, 1942, is the battle Australia tries to forget. Although there was much to be proud of that day--courage, ma ...Show more
The Wood Age: How One Material Shaped the Whole of Human History by Roland Ennos
Category: History
Roland Ennos' The Wood Age is a love-letter to the world's most vital and yet most threatened material. It is the story of how wood has shaped our human experience from the earliest foragers to the modern four poster bed. In a journey to appreciate how much wood matters – and has done since prehistory ...Show more
Women to the Front by Heather Sheard; Ruth Lee
Category: History
At the outbreak of World War I, 129 women were registered as medical practitioners in Australia, and many of them were eager to contribute their skills and expertise to the war effort. For the military establishment, however, the notion of women doctors serving on the battlefield was unthinkable. Undau ...Show more
Dark Archives - A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom
Category: History
There are books out there, some shelved unwittingly next to ordinary texts, that are bound in human skin. Would you know one if you held it in your hand? In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom, a medical librarian and a cofounder of the Death Salon, seeks out the historic and scientific truths behind this a ...Show more
Harlem Nights: The Secret History of Australia's Jazz Age by Deirdre O'Connell
Category: History
The untold story of race and power in Australia's Jazz AgeThe 1920s were a time of wonder and flux, when Australians sensed a world growing smaller, turning faster-and, for some, skittering off balance. American movies, music and dance brought together what racial lines kept apart. A spirit of youthful ...Show more
The Arab Conquests: The spread of Islam and the first caliphates by Justin Marozzi
Category: History | Series: The\Landmark Library
In the 7th and 8th centuries AD, armies inspired by the new religion of Islam burst out of Arabia to subjugate the Levant, southwest Asia, North Africa and the Iberian peninsula. These Arab conquests followed immediately after the Prophet Mohammed's death in 632. By this time, against all the odds, he h ...Show more
Midnight in Chernobyl - The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham
Category: History | Reading Level: very good
--THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER-- 'An invaluable contribution to history.' Serhii Plokhy, Evening Standard'Tells the story of the disaster and its gruesome aftermath with thriller-like flair. Midnight in Chernobyl is wonderful and chilling ... written with skill and passion.' Luke Harding, The Observer' ...Show more
The Romanovs: The Story of Russia and its Empire 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Category: History | Reading Level: good
"Epic history on the grandest scale. . . . Game of Thrones seems like the proverbial vicar's tea party in comparison."--Financial Times The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world's surface for three centuries. How did one family turn a war-ruined princip ...Show more
Fitzroy 1974 - Fifty Years after the Hollow Mountains by Robert Ashton
Category: History
First published in 1974, Into the Hollow Mountains was a landmark book featuring black-and-white images taken by Robert Ashton around the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, alongside original writing from local creatives including author Helen Garner. Fitzroy 1974 presents an authentic record of what it was ...Show more
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham
Category: History
The definitive, dramatic, minute-by-minute story of the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster by New York Times-bestselling author Adam Higginbotham, based on fascinating new archival research and in-depth reporting - a riveting history that reads like a thriller From the New York Times-bestselling aut ...Show more