To Constitute a Nation
A Cultural History of Australia's Constitution

This 1997 book is an imaginative and resonant exploration of the broader context of the Australian constitution.

Helen Irving (Author)

9780521668972, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 June 1999

272 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.37 kg

'Helen Irving has made a unique and valuable historical contribution to the often dry, legal discourse about our Constitution.' Labour History

This imaginative and resonant 1997 book looks at the constitution as a cultural artefact. It attempts to understand the period during which it emerged, culminating in Federation in 1901. Irving looks beyond the well-known events, places and figures to locate federation and the constitution in the context of broader social, political and cultural changes. She argues that Australians displayed an ability to reconcile the demands of pragmatism with the urge of romanticism. Despite its paradoxical construction, there is something uniquely Australian about the constitution, and it marked a utopian moment as the old century gave way to the new. Irving analyses the background and outcomes of the Constitutional Convention and considers its significance for Australia's possible future as a republic.

Chronology
Introduction
1. Colonial nuptials
2. The imaginary nation
3. Imagined Constitutions
4. Models for a nation
5. Things properly federal
6. White Australians
7. Australian natives
8. The people
9. Citizens
10. Half the nation
11. The federal compact
Postscript.

Subject Areas: Constitution: government & the state [JPHC], Cultural studies [JFC], Australasian & Pacific history [HBJM]