The bestselling author of The Australian Moment asks the most
important question confronting the country right now - how do we
maintain our winning streak? Most nations don't get a first chance to
prosper. Australia is on its second. For the best part of the nineteenth
century, Australia was the world's richest country, a pioneer for
democracy and a magnet for migrants. Yet our last big boom was followed
by a fifty-year bust as we lost our luck, our riches and our nerve, and
shut our doors on the world. Now we're back on top, in the position
where history tells us we made our biggest mistakes. Can we learn from
our past and cement our place as one of the world's great nations?
Showing that our future is in our foundation, Australia's Second Chance
goes back to 1788, the first contact between locals and migrants, to
bring us a unique and fascinating view of the key events of our past
right through to the present day. With newly available economic data and
fresh interviews with former leaders (including the last major interview
with Malcolm Fraser), George Megalogenis crunches the numbers and weaves
our history into a riveting argument, brilliantly chronicling our
dialogue with the world and bringing welcome insight into the urgent
question of who we are, and what we can become.
