AustLit

'A century on from Federation, the conventional frame for discussing the development of national consciousness prior to 1901 is the whole territory and people of what was to become the Australian Commonwealth. This continental mind-set owes much to Russel Ward, and the impact of his argument, first made half a century ago, about the nineteenth-century origins of Australian national identity. In this article I discuss the development of national feeling with a more restricted geographic focus, a phenomenon which in Ward's thesis, and since, has been too much overlooked.

'Ward's book, "The Australian Legend", told a powerful foundation story for the continental nation, one that was enthusiastically embraced at the time by other radical-nationalist historians and found an enduring resonance among the public at large.'

Source: Article abstract.