What do I know about cattle and sheep ranches in the Australian outback of the late 19th, early 20th centuries?
Well, for a long time I could only say I'd read Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice; now I can say I've read Alistair Paterson's The Lost Legions: Cultural Contact in Colonial Australia. I feel on steadier ground today.
The title of this new book by Alistair Paterson, published by Altamira Press in January 2008, comes from a Rudyard Kipling poem about the bravery of the British imperialists. You can read "The Lost Legion" poem online at EveryPoet.com. The poem is very much Kipling, with brave boys off to adventures with a strictly maintained meter (of course!).
The book is primarily centered around Paterson's archaeological work on the Strangway Springs Sheep Station. He uses archaeology and historical documents and oral history to put the study in the broader context of the entire British empire. But, most importantly (to me anyway), The Lost Legions has a plethora of great ideas about the different aspects of studying colonialism archaeologically. I sure hope Paterson is going to keep investigating them.
Read the Review (and other sources)
- Full book review of The Lost Legions
- Strangways Springs Sheep Station, more on the archaeological site
- The Lost Legions , Altamira Press page
- Lost Legions, buy the book from PriceGrabber.
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