The Black War: Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania
Nicholas Clements; University of Queensland Press, 2014; 288 pages; $34.95 (paperback)
In his foreword to Nicholas Clements’ ‘The Black War’, Australia’s pre-eminent historian of frontier conflict, Henry Reynolds, contends that Clements has transcended the ‘angry contention’ of the Australia’s ‘history wars’ and ‘has, consequently, brought them to an end’ (p x). A high recommendation, indeed. Clements himself claims to have illuminated the war in Tasmania from ‘important and neglected angles’, and that his ‘unique approach has contributed a fresh layer to our understanding’ of the Black War’s importance in Australian and world history (p 204).