Stuart Macintyre, one of Australias most highly regarded historians, revisits A Concise History of Australia to provoke readers to reconsider Australias past and its relationship to the present. Integrating new scholarship with the historical record, the fifth edition of A Concise History of Australia brings together the long narrative of Australias First Nations peoples; the arrival of Europeans and the era of colonies, convicts, gold and free settlers; the foundation of a nation state; and the social, cultural, political and economic developments that created a modern Australia. As we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, Macintyres Australia remains one of achievements and failures. So too the future possibilities are deeply rooted in the countrys past endeavours. A Concise History of Australia is an invitation to examine this past.