'A writer of great distinction ... This book is the work of a man who can impose on the chaos of the past an order that lifts the work into the realms of art without doing violence to the events or sacrificing the standards of scholarship as defined by the academics. It is a great achievement.' Manning Clark 'A superb evocation of Australian life in the years between federation and the First World War, showing how imperial sentiment dominated our lives and left a vacuum in Australia's national identity ... beautifully written, lucid, witty and compelling.' Gough Whitlam