AustLit

'It is both fascinating and revealing to read these two books together. Sendziuk and Foster's volume, a narrative history of South Australia (SA), is the first for some decades, and tells the state's story in a traditional format. The second is a book of essays, in which a diverse bunch of historians and a historical novelist with some new material challenge several of the South Australian foundational beliefs (‘fictions’). Read together they offer new perspectives on the old question about South Australian history: how different was South Australia? They also offer interesting synergies as Sendziuk, for example, is the author/editor of both volumes and he and Foster clearly take into account, where possible, the contrary arguments of the essay writers.' (Introduction)