e542e1c6-547c-4dd1-b311-f58b2db1ebad
e5b543e2-ffef-4104-922a-095c385cb561
cbe1a680-c7ed-4db0-93ad-71241979201d
732af61d-b3b4-4267-949f-cd3028d42eee
da704839-dcfa-4bd7-bacb-59879252fb4f
6da16438-792b-4cb9-81f2-2e227f4b093b
0a2c4ad3-1f93-4839-a73f-2bf970d191f2
b6d181ae-a88d-4c5a-ae47-ad20403fb10d
fcb51566-f40b-4093-bf0f-5e8ea6010a55
b441c0a7-363b-4047-8680-289d9d41367f
bd4a6e5c-8930-4195-aefc-d6b75c8e5970
28a83363-eb32-49a1-a082-4a84236fe4ec
3b5e30ed-8156-428c-9f84-3afae4d75e71
27b07475-577f-4312-9339-6234f043be5f
f70b8f18-d836-4c7c-8255-ca4bda08b974
f05b38b9-d558-49d0-8fbd-47d9ee065503
ff0e8613-26c6-4350-914a-ff73d9580ac7
4d5d8883-50d6-4e97-a2dd-7de6eb175f91
7f8d4419-bcae-49ce-a229-c6460248fd15
1fd0282c-ce63-4be0-84b3-5e7e26ea4393
46474415-7fb2-4ba1-a926-fff4f6b37a37
99742ec9-fe01-4fb4-ac9f-f90e3560374b
4d4fe41a-0514-492b-b826-a12802096aa1

1852 2vol The History Of Tasmania by John West Antique Australian History Books

$1,395.00

Tax includedShipping calculated at checkout


Condition: Very good

Please see below for more condition details

Only 1 in stock!
1852 2vol The History Of Tasmania by John West Antique Australian History Books

The History Of Tasmania
By John West
Published by Henry Dowling: Launceston 1852 1st Edition
Complete 2 Volume 1st Edition Set - Quality Rebind Retaining Original Skins

"John West's The History of Tasmania (1852) stands as one of the most important early documentary histories of Van Diemen's Land, written by a minister-historian with direct access to official papers, colonial participants, government records, and first-hand testimony. Unlike retrospective interpretations written generations later, West's narrative was compiled while memories remained fresh and while many of the principal actors—settlers, officials, soldiers, emancipists and administrators—were still alive. His work is meticulous in its reliance on written evidence: parliamentary debates, dispatches, judicial documents, early reports of settlement, and the formal accounts of frontier conflict. This foundation in contemporary documentation makes the two-volume set one of the most reliable 19th-century sources for understanding Tasmania's formative decades.

Part of the book's enduring power lies in West's refusal to romanticise or soften the colony's darker history. He records the brutalities, administrative failures, political controversies, transportation debates, and the realities of daily life in a penal colony with frankness and clarity. Where the Aboriginal-settler conflict is concerned, West relied heavily on official returns, government papers, eyewitness testimony and enumerated lists of incidents—material that modern historians still depend upon today. The detailed "Official List of Atrocities" reproduced in Volume II, for example, remains one of the very few contemporary tabulations of frontier violence compiled by people who were there, rather than reconstructed long after the fact. These primary records offer hard data from the era itself, and their existence provides crucial grounding when modern retellings sometimes rely on fragmented oral memory, incomplete tradition, or later second-hand interpretations.

For historians, collectors and researchers, West's History of Tasmania is indispensable precisely because it preserves the written record before it could be lost, distorted, or reshaped by hindsight. It captures a colony in transition—from penal outpost to self-governing society—and documents the political and moral debates of the time in the language of those who lived them. No other early Tasmanian history matches the breadth of its documentation, the immediacy of its sources, or its willingness to record difficult truths. For collectors of foundational Australian history, penal-era studies, documentary accounts of frontier conflict, or original Tasmanian print heritage, this complete 1852 first-edition set—handsomely rebound while retaining its original skins—represents one of the most significant historical works ever produced in Australia."

Quality, professional rebind retaining original skins. No inscriptions. Pages clean and beautifully presented. Binding is excellent with no loose pages. This is an excellent 1st edition copy of a scarce and important title in very good condition overall. Please study photos to further understand condition.

Size 23cm x 14.5cm x 3cm (x 2 vols) - Volume 1 has 340 Pages and Volume 2 has 380 Pages

PRODUCT DETAILS


Condition: Very good
Binding: Cloth
Special Attributes: ["1st Edition", "Rebind Retaining Original Skins", "Complete 2 Volume Set"]
Region: Australia, Oceania
Subject: History
Original/Facsimile: Original
Seller Notes: Quality, professional rebind retaining original skins. No inscriptions. Pages clean and beautifully presented. Binding is excellent with no loose pages. This is an excellent 1st edition copy of a scarce and important title in very good condition overall. Please study photos to further understand condition.
Language: English
Author: John West
Publisher: Henry Dowling: Launceston
Year Printed: 1852
Sub-subject: Tasmania History