'This book presents the lives of a dozen rebels and radicals of nineteenth century Australia: Aborigines and convicts, democrats and republicans, women who demanded equal rights for their sex, socialists and revolutionaries. All of them resisted the dominant beliefs and policies of their time. Most were little known; their lives have to be pieced together from fragments, for they did not gain the prominence or wealth which leaves records and commemorations. Other more public figures are included here because their radical side is often played down, denying them their place as critics of society. The portraits here reveal the other side of the story, turning away from the rulers to the ruled, from the victors to the victims. These lives, their struggles, victories and defeats, traverse the history of nineteenth century Australia in a way which challenges the reader to remember that the telling of history is never neutral.' (Publication summary)
