The Europeans in Australia Volume One: The Beginning

The first of three volumes of the landmark, award-winning series The Europeans in Australia gives an account of early settlement by Britain. It tells of the political and intellectual origins of this extraordinary undertaking that began during the 1780s, a decade of extraordinary creativity and the climax of the European Enlightenment. Atkinson examines, as few historians have done before, the political and intellectual origins of this extraordinary undertaking.

Alan Atkinson has a PhD from the Australian National University in Canberra, as well as a Masters degree from Trinity College, The University of Dublin. His books include Camden: Farm and Village Life in Early New South Wales and The Commonwealth of Speech.