Symbols of Australia

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>But what do they actually mean? Where do they come from?</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Why are some symbols so hotly contested?</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Does Australia have more than its fair share?</strong></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Symbols of Australia</em> offers illuminating and unexpected insights into the symbols that surround us: from Uluru to the Australian flag the rainbow serpent to Holden cars the democracy sausage to the Great Barrier Reef.</p><p>Entertaining provocative informative and often surprising <em style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Symbols of Australia</em> reveals a great deal about the ways nations are imagined - and how they imagine themselves.</p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Just when we most need it a lively reassessment of the symbols that define us and their commercial and political exploitation. A mixture of scholarly ease and irreverent playfulness that also defines us. - David Malouf award-winning Australian writer</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>If the nation is imagined the business of creating its meaningful symbols gives us the very essence of its history. The star-studded cast of</strong> <strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)><em>Symbols of Australia</em> takes us on a fascinating tour among kangaroos and pavlovas baggy green caps and rainbow serpents Holden cars and vegemite jars - and much more besides. On this splendid journey across desert and beach reef and harbour city and bush we see and hear the nation in its full dignity diversity and dagginess. - Frank Bongiorno Professor of History Australian National University</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>Humorous insightful and profound this book is a thought-provoking survey of twenty-eight of Australia's best-known and most significant symbols. Entries range from Indigenous symbols that resonate with meaning such as the Rainbow Serpent or Uluru to animals and the natural world official symbols cultural practices and commercial items of consumption. Most importantly it showcases the agency of ordinary Australians and the role of popular culture in forging national identity. - Associate Professor Hsu-Ming Teo Macquarie University</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)><em>Symbols of Australia</em> in this new revised edition is essential reading for a sure-footed trek into our constant act of becoming 'Australian' sifting through the raging cacophony of opinions to distil the most pertinent elements ... all while keeping a sense of humour firmly intact.- Miriam Corowa journalist presenter producer and director</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)>This book is a fascinating look at the symbols that have been used to define and represent our nation. At a time when Australian identity is so contested<em> Symbols of Australia</em> provides invaluable insight and context overturning long-held assumptions and rattling revered icons.</strong> <strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0)><em>Symbols of Australia</em> will make you re-think who we are and where we came from. Even better it's a bloody good read.- Monica Dux writer columnist and social commentator</strong></p><p><br></p>