THE FATAL SHORE is a fascinating account of Australia's origins in the massive social experiment called "transport." A simple idea, transport called for the removal of criminals, thus the removal of crime.
The first fleet carrying 736 convicts, arrived at Botany Bay in 1788. Eighty years and 100,000 convicts later, in 1868, the last ship dropped anchor. During this period the continent served as an enormous jail. But, against all odds, the inmates reformed themselves and Britain found she had on her hands not a jail, but a flourishing colony. How had it happened?
"Splendid...the narrative drive of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, the insight of de Tocqueville."--Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.