A Commonwealth Of Thieves: The Improbable Birth Of Australia (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
I found this book to be something of a disappointment. No because of anything this book is, but because of what I thought it was going to be. This might (probably is) be a bit unfair, but it did colour my final impressions of the book so it's worth discussing what exactly this book is.This book is a history of the initial settlement of Australia, covering the conditions in England that caused the settlement, the abortive landing at Botany Bay, the eventual removal of the expedition to Port Jackson (now better known as Sydney Harbour) and the early days of the settlement itself, its initial relationships with the native aboriginal tribes, the settlement and Norfolk island, and the hardships they all suffered - up until the departure of the first Governor, Phillip, from the still tenuous colony.That's what it covers, and _only_ that. In a book that covers the birth of Australia, I expected more. For instance, the least I had expected would be covered was the establishment of the second Australia penal colony in Van Deimen's Land which was in many ways more successful (no convicts ever escaped Van Diemen's land, something which could not be said for Sydney... escaped from the prisons occasionally, but even the infamous Cash never made it over Bass Strait). I grew up on stories of the convict days of Port Arthur - mainly because I grew up a few hours drive _from_ Port Arthur and have visited the site many times - and am myself a descendant of First Fleet convicts, so I was really looking forward to hearing more about those early days.Whilst I understand wanting to constrain scope in a book of this kind, the fact that a second colony was planted was not even mentioned in this book. Van Diemen's Land was only ever mentioned in the briefest of passing, as a waypoint on a sea journey bound for elsewhere, or to note that it's name was later changed to reflect the name of one of the early explorers to discover it (to Tasmania).Perhaps I will just have to hope that Thomas Keneally writes another book, in which we will hear about other topics not discussed, such as Port Arthur and the Rum Rebellion - in which the New South Wales Corp rose up against the governor, one infamous William Bligh. Keneally does approach this subject with rigour, and with a sympathetic unromantic view of both the early settlers, the natives of the time, and the relationship between them. Few topics are as explosive in Australian culture as this one, on a par with discussions of slavery in American history, and too often it is either glossed over entirely, or painted with a tragic or romantic vision of a utopian native society that exists no-where outside of the imagination of overactive white guilt, and actually does a disservice to a fascinating and fast disappearing culture. Keneally avoids both extremes, and provides quite an insightful modern look and analysis not only of what the natives likely thought and tried to do when these "ghosts" came to their shores and stayed, but also of the misapprehensions of the immigrant English led to initial misunderstandings and set the stage for what would be a long history of intermittent conflict and peaceful existence between the two groups.This book could almost be a partial biography of the first governor of New South Wales, Phillip, ending as it does as he walks off the Australian stage, and indeed it would be difficult to overstate the effect this intelligent, empathetic and compassionate man had both on the initial colony and the nation as a whole right through to today. Keneally paints him as a complicated figure, and though he hasn't been mythologised in Australian culture the way that American founding fathers have, perhaps through his careful planning, his constant outreach and attempts to brook understanding between the native tribes and the settlers, and his fair treatment of the people under his charge, his focus on hard and honest work, he may well have set in place the structure for everything that is good about our own national character.Through his tireless efforts, Phillip laid the groundwork for a nation of larrikans, ockers and laughter to arise from the initial commonwealth of thieves.For what it is, excellently done and well narrated. I wanted more, but that doesn't take away from the excellence of what is there.
This book, fascinating and thorough as it is, received 4 stars instead of 5 simply because it was a bit difficult to follow with the writing style presented. There were several instances where I had to re-read sections to understand Keneally's point. That being said, however, it was extremely informative and provided a deeper perspective of Australia's birth that I did not have previously.The book clearly started and ended with the recruitment, governornship and death of Arther Phillip, otherwise serving as Captain in the British Navy and finally climbing the ranks to Rear Admiral during the Napoleanic Wars. Although the book clearly outlines the start New South Wales and how Phillip's managed it until his departure, it doesn't necessarily focus on Phillips. It's more of a calendared narrative of the circumstances and details of the felons transported, and the impact New South Wales had on the Aborigines. I wanted a more concise ending to the book for what happens to Australia, but in the author's defence, we know how it ended. The crucial read would be his epilogue, which was the informative and required step from the starvation to success. The author provided many short biographies of the beginning successes in early Australia.Something that enlightened me greatly was that these felons who developed families brought forth a different perspective to their children than they otherwise could have in England. Child labour laws and the impossible class situations that led to many of the felon issues did not occur in New South Wales simply because they had a new chance at life with flattened classes. That doesn't mean you can simply drop a bunch of felons on an island and expect automatic reform, but with the hard work and dedication of the leaders of such reforms, it was a resounding success - giving hope to many families that would had otherwise died, had been imprisoned in the hulks of England, or simply had never existed.The storey of how it all came about is heartrending, simply because it was an extremely difficult way of life. I know that I could have never lived in that period and survived, no matter the country. However, the book showed a clear picture of survival, ending with the obvious picture of the success ahead.
What do You think about A Commonwealth Of Thieves: The Improbable Birth Of Australia (2006)?
Zzzzzzzz...zzzzzz... Oh, what? No, I'm sorry Mr. Keneally, but I didn't hear a word you said after 'the'. You put me right to sleep. I know I'm not supposed to sleep in class. I'm not trying to be funny. Now wait just a minute, sir. Don't blame me for your tone and monotonous droning. I won't tolerate it. I love history, always have, always will. It's not the history to which I'm opposed- its you. Had you decided to make this introductory lesson entertaining I could have kept my eyes open. Had you written it in a scholarly manner I would have eaten it up with a spoon and most likely had arguments with you in my head about whether or not your hypothesis and conjecture were correct or warranted. You did neither of these things. Please, please, please Mr. Keneally do not interrupt me, I'm speaking. You wanted to know why this was such a tremendous bore and now I'm telling you. There is no life here. Popular histories are popular because of the life their authors breathe into them with anecdotes and amusements and all sorts of devilishly delicious factoids that can be seen a funny or irreverent or scandalous or joyful. This was nothing more than a rote account of facts. It sounded to me like an elongated chapter in a high school World History textbook. Rubbish. Just absolute rubbish. There is no information here we couldn't have gathered ourselves in a week and put into a PowerPoint presentation that would have been over in 10 minutes tops. And I could understand the lack of juicy bits had you this been a scholarly work that focused on a simple thesis and extrapolated data and present us with primary and secondary documents, but this was not the case either. Instead we get a list of names, a list of dates, a few dry anecdotal histories and a handful of facts that read like a wiki. Now I'm going to go back to napping. You may have done your research, dear man, but you don't know how to present the facts worth a damn.
—William Thomas
London has too many criminals. A comically skewed legal system means a poor pickpocket could get life in prison while a rich gentleman would pay a small fine for killing someone in a bar fight. Overflowing convicts have been moved to prison ships floating in the Thames. Would the government change sentencing rules? Find solutions to combat the poverty? Instead they would invent a new kind of prison without walls by deporting thousands of men and women to the newly discovered Australia (called New South Wales). There they would create a new society in a completely foreign land already populated by a group humans whom had been cut off from the rest of humanity for 40,000 years. With a plot this rich full of colorful characters, it takes a special kind of writer to make it boring. Mr. Keneally made this book nearly unreadable despite having tons of first person sources from government records, letters, and personal journals. I am so disappointed. I kept with it expecting the various storylines to come together. They did not. Such a shame that this hugely influential moment in history received this poor treatment.
—Sean Wylie
Half way in, and so far it's terrific. It lacks a little critical reasoning and historical discipline but it is not a dry academic history either (and I've read plenty of them). I'd put it ahead of anything by, say, Peter Fitzsimons. Tom Keneally has the superior intellect and is a better writer of longer tomes; he also has the advantage of being a very accomplished novelist. Robert Hughes's 'The Fatal Shore' falls into this category of the birth of Australia via a reasonably well-reserached, tale-driven manner that can get a message across effectively and can set a nation's view of itself. The Fatal Shore is the more rigorous book, but both are excellent starting points for anyone wanting to understand Europeanised Australia's start in life. Keneally's 'The Great Shame (1998)' with its Irish convict focus. he has also written further on Australia's history, and he's worth following. A living treasure (I hope).
—Steve
