Convict Workers: Reinterpreting Australia's Past (Studies in Australian History)

Cambridge University Press, 1989. Reprint . Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket which is clean and brigh with ever-so-slight sunning to spine and minimal rubbing to edges but no chips or tears. Boards clean, square and sharp. Contents clean without bookplates, inscriptions or other markings except for light spotting to page edges. 246 pp; tables and figures. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. A radical interpretation of Australia's convict past, based on an exhaustive and detailed analysis of records of 20,000 male and female convicts - one in three of those transported to New South Wales between 1817 and 1840. The evidence overturns many previous assumptions about Australia's early history, and the essayists argue that the convicts sent to Australia were not professional criminals, but ordinary British and Irish men and women with a diverse range of useful work skills, essential to the forging of a new economy and society. Once settled, the convicts' diet, housing, health care, hours of labour were superior to that received by free men and women at home and while cruel treatment did exist, the likelihood of numerous floggings during their term of sentence is shown to be a myth. 'Convict Workers' is a study in comparative history, noting the resemblances and contrasts with indentured labour, slavery and punitive communities elsewhere. By illuminating the contribution of the convict workers to Australia's economic and social development, a fresh historical understanding of Australia's convict past emerges. All orders professionally packed, tracked and/or signed-for, and insured.