Australia is the last continent that is settled by Europeans, but it also supports people and a culture dating back tens of thousands of years. During most of the past 200 years, newcomers have sought to replace the old with the other.

This book tells how they imposed themselves on the ground, bringing technology, institutions and ideas to make them their own. It relates to progress from a colony of sanctions to a thriving free state, and shows how the search for binding traditions, as a state created by waves of newcomers, has long been frustrated by a sense of rootlessness until it has reached an understanding with its origins.

Troy's third edition of this book acclaimed key factors - social, economic and political - that formed modern Australia. It covers the rise and fall of the Howard government and the 2007 elections and an apology for the stolen generation. More than ever, Australians rely on the past to understand their future..

I want that book.