The Making and Remaking of Australasia - (Empire's Other Histories)

Book Synopsis

This book explores the emergence of 'Australasia' as a way of thinking about the culture and geography of this region. Although it is frequently understood to apply only to Australia and New Zealand, the concept has a longer and more complicated history.

'Australasia' emerged in the mid-18th century in both French and British writing as European empires extended their reach into Asia and the Pacific, and initially held strong links to the Asian continent. The book shows that interpretations and understandings of 'Australasia' shifted away from Asia in light of British imperial interests in the 19th century, and the concept was adapted by varying political agendas and cultural visions in order to reach into the Pacific or towards Antarctica.

The Making and Remaking of Australasia offers a number of rich case studies which highlight how the idea itself was adapted and moulded by people and texts both in the southern hemisphere and the imperial metropole where a range of competing actors articulated divergent visions of this part of the British Empire. An important contribution to the cultural history of the British Empire, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Studies, this collection shows how 'Australasia' has had multiple, often contrasting, meanings.

Review Quotes

"Australasia is an alluring concept. The Making and Remaking of Australasia takes readers beyond its deep connotation of southern-ness to expand our geographical and ideological horizons. The authors illuminate how 'Australasia' has been formed and reformed as people, ideas, commodities, and texts circulate and recirculate in a hyper-mobile world." --Kristyn Harman, Associate Professor, University of Tasmania, Australia

"This collection offers a significant justification for maintaining "Australasian" as a meaningful term, especially when considering the nineteenth century, and a reminder that when we look back historically we should hold in parentheses the national boundaries that eventually came to demarcate the region." --Victorian Studies

About the Author

Tony Ballantyne is Professor of History and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Humanities at the University of Otago, New Zealand, where he is also Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Colonial Culture. He has published widely on empires in modern world history, the cultural history of the British Empire in the nineteenth century, and colonialism and its consequences in New Zealand. His most recent monograph is Entanglements of Empire.