New from ePress - 'Struggle Country'- dreams and reality of bush life

A new book which examines Australia’s rural history and how the dream of country living diverged from the reality, was published by Monash University ePress on 17 October 2005.

'Struggle Country: The Rural Ideal in Twentieth Century Australia' is a collection of essays edited by Professor Graeme Davison and Dr Marc Brodie from Monash’s School of Historical Studies.

In recent years, interest in rural and regional Australia has focused on its decline. But this focus has had little historical perspective: it has concentrated on contemporary developments such as the globalised economy and has failed to place recent problems in the broader context of the development of rural Australia.

This book provides a broad historical perspective on decline in the bush and a thorough understanding of how country people have seen themselves and their future, and how this has affected development in rural areas.

The essays are written by some of Australia’s leading academics including Professor Davison, author of the award-winning 'Car Wars: How the Car Won our Hearts' (2004). Professor Don Aitkin AO, one of Australia’s leading intellectuals, has written the afterword.  The essays look at how the dreams of progress that captured the imagination of country towns, regions, city politicians and historians led to positive and negative outcomes.

Essays:
'Country life: the rise and decline of an Australian ideal', Graeme Davison, Monash University;
'Rural womanhood and the embellishment of rural life in urban Australia', Kate Murphy, Monash University;
'History and memory in Australia’s wheatlands', Joy McCann, Australian National University;
'Local history and decline in country Victoria', Helen Doyle, Monash University;
'The river and the town’, Jill Tacon, Monash University;
'Closer settlement in Queensland: the rise and decline of the agrarian dream, 1860s-1960s', David Cameron, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service;
'Listening to the Lawsons: radio crosses the urban rural divide', Megan Blair, Monash University;
'The Rocky Gully exodus', Jaime Phillips, Curtin University of Technology;
'The politics of rural nostalgia between the wars', Marc Brodie, Monash University;
'The dying town syndrome: a survey of urban development in the western district of Victoria, 1890-1930’, Monica Keneley,Deakin University.

Monash University ePress was established in 2003. It publishes texts and journals online and in print. For information on Struggle Country visit www.epress.monash.edu/sc.

24 October 2005

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'Struggle Country: The Rural Ideal in Twentieth Century Australia', edited by Professor Graeme Davison and Dr Marc Brodie from Monash’s School of Historical Studies, is a new title for Monash University ePress.