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The Commonwealth of Thieves

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The Commonwealth of Thieves Synopsis

The story of modern Australia begins in eighteenth-century Britain, where people were hanged for petty offences but crime was rife, and the gaols were bursting. From this situation was born the Sydney experiment, with criminals perceived to be damaging British society transported to Sydney, an 'open air prison with walls 14,000 miles thick'. Eleven ships were dispatched in 1781, and arrived in Australia after eight hellish months at sea. Tom Keneally describes the first four years of the 'thief colony' and how, despite the escapes, the floggings, the murders and the rebellions, it survived against the odds to create a culture which would never have been tolerated in its homeland but which, in Australia, became part of the identity of a new and audacious nation. By the author of Schindler's Ark, since made into the internationally acclaimed film, Schindler's List.

About This Edition

ISBN: 9780099483748
Publication date: 7th June 2007
Author: Thomas Keneally
Publisher: Vintage an imprint of Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback
Pagination: 528 pages
Genres: Australasian and Pacific history
Colonialism and imperialism
Penology and punishment