The men who drafted the Australian Constitution in the 1890s may have thought that they were filling in blank pages, but in fact those pages were already inscribed with the dominant values and ideas of the times. This imaginative and resonant book looks at the Constitution as a cultural artefact and...

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Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Irving, Helen (Author)
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Cambridge [u.a.] Cambridge Univ. Press 1997
Edition:	1. publ.
Series:	Studies in Australian history
Subjects:	Geschichte 1880-1901 Culturele aspecten Grondwetten Geschichte Kultur Politik Constitutional history > Australia National characteristics, Australian Political culture > Australia > History Verfassung Australien Australia > Politics and government
Summary:	The men who drafted the Australian Constitution in the 1890s may have thought that they were filling in blank pages, but in fact those pages were already inscribed with the dominant values and ideas of the times. This imaginative and resonant book looks at the Constitution as a cultural artefact and attempts to understand the period during which it emerged, culminating in Federation in 1901. The book argues that Australians displayed an ability to reconcile the demands of pragmatism with the spirit of romanticism in constituting their nation Helen Irving looks beyond the well-known events, places and figures to ask: What are the prerequisites to becoming a nation? What did ordinary people hope to achieve by uniting six separate colonies? She locates Federation and the Constitution in the context of broader changes in the arts and literature, in the political sphere and in race relations, and in light of the emergence of the Labor Party, institutionalised industrial relations, the political activism of women and the reality of difficult economic times
Physical Description:	XIII, 253 S.
ISBN:	0521584175