This is not a book of documents, snippets or worthy speeches. Instead it presents the original essays and the moments of insight that told us what Australia is and could be.
These are the essential statements - from historians, reporters, novelists, mavericks and visionaries - that take us from Federation to the present-day, and tell a story of national self-discovery.
There is the Frenchman who saw that Australia was a 'workingman's paradise', and the historian who explained why.
The two reporters who realised the true significance of Gallipoli and conveyed it to the nation....