{"product_id":"what-if-sean-scalmer-9780522851748","title":"What If?: Australian History as it Might Have Been","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat if key episodes in Australia's past had turned out differently?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf France had colonised part of Australia in the eighteenth century?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf the ANZACS had played only a minor role in the Gallipoli landing in World War I?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf Gough Whitlam's Labor government had been re-elected after its dismissal in 1975?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf Aborigines had been granted citizenship much earlier?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat new paths might our national history have followed? In this fascinating volume, leading Australian historians search for answers. Together, they reimagine Australia's environment, race relations, art, political life, and national identity, providing a play on actual and possible, action and result, result and consequence that is as rigorous as it is creative.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the political realm, Jim Davidson asks What if Tasmania had become French?; Marilyn Lake wonders what would have happened had Alfred Deakin made a declaration of Australian independence; Helen Irving questions where we'd be if Federation had failed in 1900; James Walker asks What if Whitlam had won another opportunity to implement his program? The cultural questions include Peter Read asking What if Aborigines had never been assimilated?; Sean Scalmer examines the possible outcome if the attempted assassination of Arthur Calwell had been successful; and Ann Curthoys asks What if a men's movement had triumphed in the 1970s?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat If? asks how our history has been written, what our nation has become, and what it might yet be.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Sean Scalmer,Stuart MacIntyre\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0522851746\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780522851748\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Melbourne University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/29\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.02lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.15h x 6.14w x 0.86d","brand":"Sean Scalmer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48742269518079,"sku":"9780522851748","price":25.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/what-if-sean-scalmer-9780522851748","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}