History

The Land of Dreams: How Australians won their freedom,1788–1860 by David Kemp

Item: The Land of Dreams: How Australians won their freedom,1788–1860
Author: Alan Atkinson

by Alan Atkinson •

January-February 2019, no. 408

Miegunyah Press, $59.99 hb, 512 pp, 9780522873337

History

The Land of Dreams: How Australians won their freedom,1788–1860 by David Kemp

by Alan Atkinson •

January-February 2019, no. 408

This is the first of a five-volume series, apparently all by David Kemp, with the general title Australian Liberalism. The second volume, A Free Country: Australians’ search for utopia 1861–1901, is planned by Melbourne University Publishing next year. Kemp was senior lecturer and then Professor of Politics at Monash University until 1990, and after that a minister in John Howard’s government. He is a Liberal Party insider – his father was founder of the Institute of Public Affairs – and in this project he has the advantage of a lifetime spent coming to grips with the long trajectory of Australian liberalism.

Alan Atkinson

Alan Atkinson is an honorary senior research fellow at the University of Western Australia. The third and final volume of his book, The Europeans in Australia, won the Victorian Prize for Literature 2015 and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History. He is also the author of Camden, The Commonwealth of Speech and a number of other books. His forthcoming book, Elizabeth and John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm (NewSouth Publishing), will appear in late 2022.