Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore will answer your question in excruciating detail. Mr. Hughes was perhaps the 20th century's most highly accomplished art critic. He was also a native Australian. The book is a very good non-academic history of Australia's settlement by England. At the risk of stating the obvious, the criminals who were sent to Australia had very bleak existences to put it mildly. Note that most of the criminals were sent to Australia for petty offenses.
I’ve been reading an amazing book about Polynesian settlement. You should check it out. It’s fascinating and a really good read. The problem is it’s led to a google earth and Wikipedia binge where I’ve learned about islands formed by a god doing goatse to captain cook to the physics of sailing and now I’m ready to leave my family and buy a sailboat.
If you are looking specifically at the history of the penal colonies, try Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore. I read it some time ago and enjoyed it quite a bit.
N.B. Hughes is an Aussie and no fan of the British.
If you like the idea of living on an island I strongly recommend An Island to Onself by Tom Neale. It’s definitely a good read. Unfortunately while looking for the link to an Amazon site that sells it I found that they’re now selling it at a ridiculous price. Sorry about that.
Great comments on this thread. To add a bit more depth, I would suggest picking up the book "So you want to live in Hawaii". You can pick it up on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/So-You-Want-Live-Hawaii/dp/0966625307
Destiny's Landfall, Robt F. Rogers, (Revised) should be required reading for anyone here. Really explains what you're looking at and why. https://www.amazon.com/Destinys-Landfall-History-Guam-Revised/dp/0824833341
On the international scale we are close to the least corrupt. Pretty darn good compared to almost all the world.
I think I went through a phase where I thought any national pride was misplaced but I've come out the side. Stories that give society common cause to improve things for more people in society can be incredible important.
Fairness (vs. freedom) is another interesting and valuable element of NZ culture. E.g. vs the US where it's all "my rights" and "freedom" rather than looking after others and ensuring they're treated fairly. https://www.amazon.com/Fairness-Freedom-History-Societies-Zealand/dp/0199832706 It's really feckin unusual for a country to have a TV show about fairness being top rated for decades.
I implore anyone who finds this interesting to read “Lost in Shangri-La.” It’s probably the best non-fiction book I’ve read about the discovery of a untouched tribe in Papua New Guinea during WW2. The coincidences and beliefs that all transpire are so damn fascinating.
Lost in Shangri-La https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061988359/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_AGVBMEXPEN56FFPRDZX6
I think you're the same guy I got into that back and forth over Prots with.
This is the same situation lol, everything I know comes from one book: History of Japan; and I just so happened to just read the part that talks about how Tendai and Shingon Buddhism subsumed Shinto cults, which only re-emerged somewhat artificially in the 19th century as part of the birth of modern Japanese nationalism.
Some Catholic saints are absolutely Christianized pagan spirits and deities, though.
I already returned it to my library, but I looked it up for you. It's Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson. Amazon has it for about $14, and I'm sure any major library would have it, too. It really helped me understand the geography of the Pacific islands, as well as who the Polynesian people are.
This is the book I usually recommend as a starting place. Very easy to read, doesn't require too much remembering of names and places as you progress, but is still very rigorous. (I emphasize this because there are many crap books on Japanese history out there.)
PS- "its first settlement" I've always loved phrases like this...
if that interests you, you should read Lost in Shangri-La and Peace Child. Both are great and both took place on Papua.
> Thomas Francis "Tom" Neale (November 6, 1902 - November 27, 1977) was a New Zealander bushcraft and survival enthusiast who spent much of his life in the Cook Islands and 16 years in three sessions living alone on the island of Anchorage in the Suwarrow atoll, which was the basis of this autobiography.
http://www.amazon.com/An-Island-Oneself-Tom-Neale/dp/0918024765
As a Canadian, I find Australian history to be very interesting.
The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes is a great read... up to it's final couple of chapters on the 20th Century, when Australian history becomes pretty similar to any of the other Dominion's.
May I suggest a few replacements...
We, the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific
Just my 2 cents here, but if you want to understand our history a little more, I recommend Fairness and Freedom. It compares NZ and the US so will help you to understand our culture and indigenous rights history against the background of your own history, which in turn might help you to understand the comparison a little more.
http://www.amazon.com/Fairness-Freedom-History-Societies-Zealand/dp/0199832706
I live in Hawaii. It's not beaches and wilderness at all. You are in love with a fantasy, not a real place. This book was very helpful in making an informed decision to come. Obviously, what it told me did not scare me away, but I got a few of my illusions out of my way before I packed my suit case.
Hawaii has a very 'ohana' attitude towards those with mental challenges, and you should be able to establish some support here if you choose to come.
My experience is that the islands either embrace you, or chew you up and spit you out inside of six months. This has nothing to do with either your abilities or desires, nor the effort you put into making it work. It just happens that way. I've seen the unlikeliest of people thrive, and the most well-intentioned of people utterly defeated. You won't know until you come.
Oh, no, no, no. I recommend to you a close read of The Fatal Shore, by Robert Hughes, which will get you better understanding of how it wasn't ever a "nation of inmates", as you say.
That won't cover the period where the world was falling in love with Australia, though, and it flirted closely with being the best of all of the other Big Experiments up into the '90s (with some extremely notable and regrettable exceptions). I don't know what reading to recommend for that, unfortunately.