By Richard Hall
Have we taken a 'black armband' view of our history that emphasises the negative at the expense of the positive? In this thought-provoking collection of essays, writer and journalist Richard Hall takes us through some of the less glorious moments of Australian history - reminding us that those who do not acknowledge the past can never be free of it.
These essays range from discussion of the brutal 'dispersals' of Aborigines by the Native Police, to the equally brutal language of the press which urged settlers to hunt down Abor wild beasts' and accused Chinese immigrants of carrying the plague; from the hounding of members of a black American jazz band for fraternising with white girls, to the secret blocking of security clearances for homosexuals in Canberra in the 1960s, and to how the language of Pauline Hanson draws on past prejudice and hate.