 First edition | |
| Author | Professor Henry Reynolds |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Australian frontier wars |
| Published | Sydney |
| Publisher | NewSouth Publishing |
Publication date | 2013 |
| Pages | 280 |
| ISBN | 9781742233925 |
| 994.0049915 | |
Forgotten War is a 2013 book by Australian historian Henry Reynolds concerning the Australian frontier wars, a conflict between the British Empire and settlers on one side and Indigenous Australians on the other.
Forgotten War is a follow-up from Reynolds' previous work, The Other Side of the Frontier which argued British colonisation of Australia had involved significant levels of violence and conflict, the history of which has been largely ignored. Forgotten War is designed as a "thorough and systematic account" of the frontier wars. The book argues there can be no true reconciliation between Indigenous Australians and non-indigenous Australians without acknowledging the history of violence and conflict. [1]
Historian Raymond Evans, writing for The Sydney Morning Herald described the book as a "closely argued account" which continues Reynolds' tradition of informing the "Australian public of things they need to know, but which many of them do not wish to hear." Evans concluded by praising Forgotten War as "an important and richly textured book - one that deserves wide reading and debate." [2]
In the Sydney Review of Books Anna Clark wrote that "Reynolds is at his heartfelt and persuasive best here, as he explains the shared horrors of the frontier. He does so patiently and methodically, asking: Was it violent? (Yes.) Was it political and territorial? (Yes.) Was it war? (Yes.)" [3]
Forgotten War received the Victorian Premier's Award for a Non-Fiction work at the 2014 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards with Reynolds receiving a $A25,000 prize. [4] The judges praised Reynolds' work as "Elegantly written, authoritative and reflective" which "places our history in its contemporary context". The judges also noted that "Timely historical analysis of newly collated and discovered evidence shows that the coming of European settlers to Aboriginal territories was firmly defined as a frontier war by those involved at the time, government officials and settlers alike." [5]
The book was also shortlisted for the 2015 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prize for best book with Tasmanian content in any genre and the Queensland Literary Awards History Book Award.
The Black War was the period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Australians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. The conflict, fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides, claimed the lives of more than 200 European colonists and between 600 and 900 Aboriginal people, nearly annihilating the island's indigenous population. The near-destruction of the Aboriginal Tasmanians, and the frequent incidence of mass killings, has sparked debate among historians over whether the Black War should be defined as an act of genocide.
Keith Windschuttle is an Australian writer, historian, and former ABC board member.
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Henry Reynolds is an Australian historian whose primary work has focused on the frontier conflict between European settlers in Australia and indigenous Australians.
The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary prize with the top winner receiving A$125,000 and category winners A$25,000 each.
The history wars in Australia are an ongoing public debate over the interpretation of the history of the British colonisation of Australia and development of contemporary Australian society.
Lyndall Ryan, is an Australian academic and historian. She has held positions in Australian Studies and Women's Studies at Griffith University and Flinders University and was Foundation Professor of Australian Studies and Head of School of Humanities at the University of Newcastle, 1998–2005. She is currently Conjoint Professor in the Centre for the History of Violence at the University of Newcastle.
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The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal Resistance to the European invasion of Australia is a history book published in 1981 by Australian historian Henry Reynolds. It is a study of Aboriginal Australian resistance to the British settlement, or invasion, of Australia from 1788 onwards.
The Australian frontier wars is a term applied by some historians to violent conflicts between Indigenous Australians and white settlers during the British colonisation of Australia. The first fighting took place several months after the landing of the First Fleet in January 1788 and the last clashes occurred in the early 20th century, as late as 1934. A minimum of 40,000 Indigenous Australians and between 2,000 and 2,500 settlers died in the wars. However, recent scholarship on the frontier wars in what is now the state of Queensland indicates that Indigenous fatalities may have been significantly higher. Indeed, while battles and massacres occurred in a number of locations across Australia, they were particularly bloody in Queensland, owing to its comparatively larger pre-contact Indigenous population.
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