AustLit logo

AustLit

image of person or book cover 3045133174893981438.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Killing for Country : A Family Story multi chapter work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2023... 2023 Killing for Country : A Family Story
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A gripping reckoning with the bloody history of Australia's frontier wars

'David Marr was shocked to discover forebears who served with the brutal Native Police in the bloodiest years on the frontier. Killing for Country is the result – a soul-searching Australian history.

'This is a richly detailed saga of politics and power in the colonial world – of land seized, fortunes made and lost, and the violence let loose as squatters and their allies fought for possession of the country – a war still unresolved in today's Australia.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Collingwood, Fitzroy - Collingwood area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Black Inc. , 2023 .
      image of person or book cover 3045133174893981438.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 432p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 3 October 2023
      ISBN: 9781760642730

Other Formats

Works about this Work

The Bonds That Remain Victoria Grieve-Williams , 2024 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16 March 2024; (p. 21)
Silence and the Social Order John Hinkson , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: Arena Quarterly , Autumn no. 17 2024; (p. 90-92)

— Review of Killing for Country : A Family Story David Marr , 2023 multi chapter work criticism
The 17 Best Books of 2023 Geordie Williamson , Justine Hyde , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 22 January 2024;

— Review of The Sitter Angela O'Keeffe , 2023 single work novel ; Killing for Country : A Family Story David Marr , 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; The Conversion Amanda Lohrey , 2023 single work novel ; The Vitals Tracy Sorensen , 2023 single work prose ; Right Story, Wrong Story : Adventures in Indigenous Thinking Tyson Yunkaporta , 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; Praiseworthy Alexis Wright , 2023 single work novel ; Edenglassie Melissa Lucashenko , 2023 single work novel ; Women and Children Tony Birch , 2023 single work novel ; The Art of Breaking Ice Rachael Mead , 2023 single work novel ; I'd Rather Not Robert Skinner , 2023 single work autobiography ; On Peter Carey : Writers on Writers Sarah Krasnostein , 2023 single work biography ; New Australian Fiction 2023 2023 anthology short story ; Critic Swallows Book : Ten Years of the Sydney Review of Books 2023 anthology review essay
Demythologising the Frontier Larissa Behrendt , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Inside Story , December 2023;

— Review of Killing for Country : A Family Story David Marr , 2023 multi chapter work criticism

'David Marr’s intergenerational account of colonisation challenges us to think differently about truth-telling' (Introduction)

Who Do We Think We Are? Richard King , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 14-15 October 2023; (p. 16)

— Review of Killing for Country : A Family Story David Marr , 2023 multi chapter work criticism
‘Ballsy’, ‘very Funny’, ‘read in One Sitting’ : The Best Australian Books Out in October Alyx Gorman , Imogen Dewey , Fiona Wright , Sian Cain , Lucy Clark , Yvonne C Lam , Janine Israel , Celina Ribeiro , Ben Doherty , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 4 October 2023;

— Review of Edenglassie Melissa Lucashenko , 2023 single work novel ; Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Wood , 2023 single work novel ; Late : A Novel Michael Fitzgerald Page , 2023 single work novel ; Killing for Country : A Family Story David Marr , 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; Gunflower Laura Jean McKay , 2023 selected work short story ; The Man Who Wasn't There Dan Box , 2023 single work biography ; Home to Biloela Priya Nadesalingam , Rebekah Holt , 2023 single work autobiography
‘I Can’t Argue Away the Shame’ : Frontier Violence and Family History Converge in David Marr’s Harrowing and Important New Book Julianne Schultz , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 10 October 2023;

— Review of Killing for Country : A Family Story David Marr , 2023 multi chapter work criticism

'Cultural capital is a rare and precious commodity. It is earned by doing – with wit, rigour and imagination. Being born to privilege may help in its accumulation, but that is not sufficient. These days, especially, privilege can be an impediment.' 

Follow the Sheep : An Unflinching Contribution to Frontier History Mark McKenna , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 458 2023; (p. 14, 16)

— Review of Killing for Country : A Family Story David Marr , 2023 multi chapter work criticism
'Forty-three years ago, David Marr – journalist, broadcaster, biographer, political commentator, and public intellectual – published his first book, a sharp, memorable biography of Garfield Barwick, former Liberal attorney-general and chief justice of the High Court. After the appearance of Patrick White: A life in 1991, long considered one of the best biographies ever written in Australia, he might well have followed the more predictable path of the serial biographer. But Marr’s trajectory has proved to be anything but predictable.' (Introduction) 
David Marr Killing for Country : A Family Story Geordie Williamson , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 28 October - 3 November 2023;

— Review of Killing for Country : A Family Story David Marr , 2023 multi chapter work criticism
David Marr : Killing for Country Braham Dabscheck , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , November 2023;

— Review of Killing for Country : A Family Story David Marr , 2023 multi chapter work criticism
'David Marr’s account of his ancestors’ involvement with the Native Police and the murder of Aboriginal people is distressing and important.'
The Hatred and Greed of the Frontier Wars Still Drive Race Politics Today. How Little Things Change David Marr , 2023 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 1 October 2023;
y separately published work icon Killing for Country Georgina Arnott (interviewer), Southbank : Australian Book Review, Inc. , 2023 27089662 2023 single work podcast interview

'This week, on the ABR podcast, we feature a special conversation between author and journalist David Marr, historian Mark McKenna and ABR’s Georgina Arnott, recorded in the middle of September 2023, one month out from the Voice referendum. The subject was David Marr’s new book, Killing for Country: A family story, which takes the reader to early nineteenth-century New South Wales and follows the bloodshed of invasion as it tracks north.' (Publication abstract)

Killing for Country : A Gripping Reckoning with the Bloody History of Australia's Frontier Wars David Marr , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: The Monthly , October 2023; (p. 47)
y separately published work icon David Marr Vs Australia’s Old Lie Michael Williams (interviewer), 2023 27121019 2023 single work podcast interview

'For many Australians, facing the reality of this country is a task that has proved enduringly difficult, both at a public and a political level. For investigative journalist David Marr, finding the right way to tell the stories that allow us to see the truth of our history is a personal quest and one that has led to his latest book. This week, Michael talks with David about shame – both personal and national – and why his family agreed that he had to write Killing for Country.' 

The Bonds That Remain Victoria Grieve-Williams , 2024 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16 March 2024; (p. 21)
Last amended 7 Mar 2024 12:33:52
X