Benjamin Wilkie. The Scots in Australia, 1788–1938

The history of the Scottish diaspora continues to be a burgeoning field of research. Benjamin Wilkie’s The Scots in Australia, 1788–1938 is a welcome and valuable addition to the existing work. The book offers important new insights into the settlement of Scots in Australia, their networks, their culture, and, in a particularly important chapter, their interactions with, and impact on, indigenous Australians. The book offers a longitudinal assessment, exploring developments in chronological order to bring out the diverse facets of Scottish life in Australia from its establishment as a convict colony in 1788 to 1938. The study is also connected through three key thematic focuses, however, including the lived experience of Scots in Australia, the role of popular imperialism, and Scottishness in Australia in wider context. Several sub-themes cut across these focuses, including an examination of how the Scots in Australia responded to place, space, and environment after arrival and over time.

Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology) · Convict · Diaspora · Ethnology · Genealogy · Indigenous · Literature · Media studies · Scots · Settlement (finance) · Sociology · Ecology · Gender Studies · Historical Studies of British Isles · History