This is not a book of documents, snippets or worthy speeches. Instead it presents the original essays and the moments of insight that told us what Australia is and could be.

These are the essential statements – from historians, reporters, novelists, mavericks and visionaries – that take us from Federation to the present-day, and tell a story of national self-discovery.

There is the Frenchman who saw that Australia was a 'workingman's paradise', and the historian who explained why.

The two reporters who realised the true significance of Gallipoli and conveyed it to the nation.

Russel Ward on the Australian Legend, Robin Boyd on the Australian Ugliness, Donald Horne on the Lucky Country, W.E.H. Stanner on the Great Australian Silence and Anne Summers on Manzone Country.

Real Matildas, Cultural Cringers, Future Eaters and Forgotten People – and much more.

Memorably written and cohesive, this is the essential sourcebook of the words that made Australia.

Includes essays by Miles Franklin, Albert Metin, Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, Keith Murdoch, Maybanke Anderson, D.H. Lawrence, W.K. Hancock, P.R. Stephensen, Vance Palmer, Robert Menzies, A.A. Phillips, Manning Clark, Russel Ward, Barry Humphries, Robin Boyd, Donald Horne, W.E.H. Stanner, Humphrey McQueen, Hugh Stretton, Anne Summers, Miriam Dixson, Bernard Smith, Paul Kelly, Geoffrey Blainey, Tim Flannery, David Malouf, Inga Clendinnen, Noel Pearson, Judith Brett and Ghassan Hage.