Girt Nation

The Unauthorised History of Australia, Volume 3

By: David Hunt

Narrated by: David Hunt

From the best-selling author of Girt and True Girt, the saga of Australia continues....

David Hunt tramples the tall poppies of the past in charting Australia’s transformation from aspiration to nation - an epic tale of charlatans and costermongers, of bush bards and bushier beards, of workers and women who weren’t going to take it anymore.

Girt Nation introduces Alfred Deakin, the Liberal necromancer whose dead advisors made Australia a better place to live, and Banjo Paterson, the jihadist who called on God and the Prophet to drive the Australian infidels from the Sudan ‘like sand before the gale’. And meet Catherine Helen Spence, the feminist polymath who envisaged a utopian future of free contraceptives, easy divorce and immigration restrictions to prevent the ‘Chinese coming to destroy all we have struggled for’!

Thrill as Jandamarra leads the Bunuba against Western Australia, and Valentine Keating leads the Crutchy Push, an all-amputee street gang, against the conventionally limbed. Gasp as Essendon Football Club trainer Carl von Ledebur injects his charges with crushed dog and goat testicles. Weep as Scott Morrison’s communist great-great-aunt Mary Gilmore holds a hose in New Australia. And marvel at how Labor, a political party that spent a quarter of a century infighting over how to spell its own name, ever rose to power.

David Hunt is an unusually tall and handsome man who likes writing his own biographical notes. He is the author of the best-selling Girt and True Girt, as well as two books for children.

©2021 David Hunt (P)2021 Audible, Ltd

Another interesting look at Australian History

I have listened to the two previous "girts" and enjoyed them both. I was not disappointed with this - but does contain a bit of strong language . Not enough to put you off and it does represent the era which this book studies, Really good to put historical and literary figures in perspective,

History Made Fun(ny) Again

Did you know that Australians coined the phrase “Jim Crow”? It’s one of the many Australian firsts i first heard about in ‘Girt Nation’. This is the funniest & most fun reading [listening] i’ve done since Dave Barry.
Through the lives of two men who rose to seats of power in late 1800’s Australia i was introduced to many fascinating individuals who dedicated their lives to change fixed beliefs of that era. Quotes, poems, songs & news stories by writers of the day are read brilliantly by the author. Here you will find a hilarious expose’ of human duplicity & ignorance, audacity & perseverance, & the luck of the draw.
As a US citizen i appreciate the historical similarities between our nations. Both nations were originally governed by England. Both treated indigenous, people of color, women & the poor with cruelty, ignorance & hatred. As in the US, the indigenous were forced into State run schools, where their language & culture were stripped away.
There was prohibition of alcohol, sexual repression, slavery, racial & sex discrimination, capital punishment & animal rights. unique democratic process.
In total, Hunt shows the evolution & complexity of Australia’s unique democracy & what it means to be “Australian”.

Struth

Learned a good amount of stuff about Australian history from this and thought it was pretty funny too.

Enlightening

An amusing and fun way to lean facts based around social norms of the time.

Is that it?

I am enjoying the books, but it seems like there are more chapters about Australia’s history to be written