Lion & Kangaroo: The Initiation of Australia

With intelligence, wisdom and wit, acclaimed historian Gavin Souter captures all the milestones of Australia’s first decades, from the constitutional conventions of the nineteenth century to the turbulent years that followed World War I. Painting unforgettable portraits of scores of the most fascinating participants, he traces a national character in evolution.

First published in 1976 and rereleased digitally by Xoum for the first time, Lion & Kangaroo is both profound and insightful. It is impossible to comprehend contemporary Australia without first reading it.

Reviews of Lion & Kangaroo

‘Souter is a writer of great distinction … This book is the work of a man who can impose on the chaos of the past an order that lifts the work into the realms of art without doing violence to the events or sacrificing the standards of scholarship as defined by the academics. It is a great achievement.’ Manning Clark

‘A superb evocation of Australian life in the years between federation and the First World War, showing how imperial sentiment dominated our lives and left a vacuum in Australia’s national identity … Souter’s book is beautifully written, lucid, witty and compelling.’ Gough Whitlam

‘Souter has written a masterpiece … The book, assiduously researched for its making, is materially explosive … Souter lets the material do its own erupting, then shapes it to his magnificent control. A mighty work of history.’ The Courier-Mail