Australian Lives: An Intimate History (Australian History)

I really like the idea that in maybe a hundred years someone could listen and hear about my life to learn about what living in 2012 or 2013 was like. Think that's really cool.--Adam-Farrow-Palmer, born 1988. ***What is life like in Australia? How has it been experienced by those who have lived it? Australian Lives: An Intimate History illuminates Australian life across the 20th and into the 21st century. How have they been shaped by the forces and expectations of contemporary history and how, in turn, have they made their lives and created Australian society? From oral history interviews with Australians born between 1920 and 1989, fifty narrators reflect on their diverse experience as children and teenagers, in midlife and in old age, about faith, migration, and activism. As interviewee Kim Bear (born 1959) explains, Stories are a great way to inform people about what it is to be human. Even if you say one thing that resonates with them, there's that connection made. This book conveys the nature and spirit of Australian life, in all its diversity, particularity, and uniqueness. To read these intimate, personal stories is a cathartic experience, and an illuminating one, for visitors to Australia, teachers and students examining Australian life past and present, and, of course, for those who themselves know intimately what it is to live as an Australian. (Series: Australian History) [Subject: Australian Studies, History, Biography, Oral History]