The Europeans In Australia by Alan Atkinson

Judges' comments

This remarkable book is a history of ideas in Australia. It is the third and final volume of a series that traces the day-to-day intellectual notions of Australian life, most notably the ideas that shaped the conception of Australia as a nation. Rather than a history of events, it is a history of the thinking that caused those events, revealing a commitment to ideas as the wellspring of action.

Alan Atkinson creates a strong, engaging narrative by uncovering the stream of ideas nourishing the way Australians have related to the landscape, how they thought about freedom, how they argued about unity, how they conceived of power. He illuminates abstract concepts — for example, how maps change the way we imagine our place in the world, with deft details and lyrical prose. One of the most striking qualities is the way he interweaves historical knowledge and literary and philosophical references with a graceful ease. Combining a vastness of ideas and a depth of understanding with a poetic sensibility, Atkinson draws the reader into the multi-textured life of the mind underlying both ordinary daily relationships and endeavours, and the life of a nation.