To Constitute a Nation: A Cultural History of Australia's Constitution

ISBN-13: 9780521668972 / Angielski / Miękka / 1999 / 272 str.

Helen Irving

Opis

This imaginative and resonant book looks at the constitution as a cultural artifact. Irving looks beyond the well-known events, places and figures to locate federation and the constitution in the context of broader social, political and cultural changes. Despite its paradoxical construction, there is something uniquely Australian about the constitution, and it marked a utopian moment as the old century gave way to the new. Irving analyzes the background and outcomes of the recent Constitutional Convention and considers its significance for Australia's future. A new chapter covers the development of the constitution in the twentieth century.

Recenzje

'Helen Irving has made a unique and valuable historical contribution to the often dry, legal discourse about our Constitution.' Labour History

Spis treści

Chronology; Introduction; 1. Colonial nuptials; 2. The imaginary nation; 3. Imagined Constitutions; 4. Models for a nation; 5. Things properly federal; 6. White Australians; 7. Australian natives; 8. The people; 9. Citizens; 10. Half the nation; 11. The federal compact; Postscript.