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Book Review
| Dancing with Strangers: Europeans and Australians at First Contact. By INGA CLENDINNEN. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 234 pp. $60.00 (cloth); $21.99 (paper).
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One must read this book with caution, for it both intrigues and perhaps unsettles. Inga Clendinnen's Dancing with Strangers boldly reconstructs early Australian settlement, recasting around indigenous contact and subsequent cultural conflict. With great compassion and insight, Clendinnen sets about to explicate the relations between individual men and the sometimes faceless, sometimes named Australians (as she terms them). Starting in 1788 and covering less than ten years in the colony of Port Jackson, Australia, it tells the story of European colonization and its effects. |
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The period, while short, intersects with the colonization of Hawai'i, the emergence of Britain as an industrial power, and the raging Indian wars of North America. It was the year the British navy took over theAndaman Islands. The era has immense comparative possibilities. Rather than create a conventional history of the era or the place, Clendinnen recasts the form. She looks instead at personalities, psychology, and inner motivation. |
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In many ways, this book is a must for world historians looking to expand historiographic technique. The text reads easily and showcases Clendinnen's organizational talent. Each of the thirty-one chapters encapsulates a common event, person, or idea, clustering primary text, analysis, and narrative context. For students looking to write a good history or for those seeking a novel format to present their own work, one should definitely read this book. |
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