In conversation: Mark McKenna

The history of Australia has been written before – but not like this.

In The Shortest History of Australia, Mark McKenna offers a compelling new version of our national story. This is a modern Australia permeated by First Nations history; a multicultural society with an island mindset; a continent of epic beauty and extreme natural events; a country obsessed by war abroad but blind to its founding war at home; and a thriving nation-state still to realise its political independence.

McKenna's wise and humane history reveals the surprising in the familiar, and reframes the past so we can see the present more clearly.

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'Remarkable ... a deeply humane account of who we are and how we came to be' —Larissa Behrendt

'A deeply imaginative, beautifully written and individual book' ––Robert Manne

'Original, eloquent and moving – a revelatory journey into the past we thought we knew' ––Tom Griffiths