Convict Society and its Enemies: A History of Early New South Wales by J B Hirst

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges. Foxing to foredges, half-title and last page. Body text and binding are still very good.

Corrupt masters, brutalised convicts, a debased slave society - these were claims made by the British opponents of transportation in the late 1830s to discredit New South Wales society. They still powerfully affect our view of it. How far are they justified?

This book offers a new examination of how the convict system worked. It also scrutinises wider society to determine how far convicts and ex-convicts shaped its structure and towns.

At no stage, the author concludes, can early NSW society be compared with a jail, and it never became a slave society.

Throughout the book, the author offers fresh insights and challenging reappraisals in this lively, well-written account of a unique society, taking discussion of early NSW onto a new plane.