Bedlam at Botany Bay

Resource Information

The work Bedlam at Botany Bay represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Randwick City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Bedlam at Botany Bay

Statement of responsibility

James Dunk

Creator

• Dunk, James

Author

• Dunk, James

Subject

• Mental illness -- New South Wales | Sydney -- History -- 19th century
• Mentally ill -- New South Wales | Sydney -- History -- 19th century
• Mentally ill -- Treatment -- New South Wales | Sydney -- History -- 19th century
• trueAustralia -- Politics and government -- 19th century
• Sydney (N.S.W.) -- History -- 19th century
• Sydney (N.S.W.) -- Social conditions -- 19th century
• Penal colonies -- New South Wales | Sydney -- History -- 19th century
• trueAustralian

Language

eng

Summary

Madness stalked the colony of New South Wales and tracing its wild path changes the way we look at our colonial history. What happened when people went mad in the fledgling colony of New South Wales? In this important new history, we find out through the tireless correspondence of governors and colonial secretaries, the delicate descriptions of judges and doctors, the brazen words of firebrand politicians, and the heartbreaking letters of siblings, parents and friends. We also hear from the mad themselves. Legal and social distinctions faded as delusion and disorder took root ? in convicts exiled from their homes and living under the weight of imperial justice, in ex-convicts and small settlers as they grappled with the country they had taken from its Indigenous inhabitants, and in government officers and wealthy colonists who sought to guide the course of European history in Australia. These stories of madness are woven together into a narrative about freedom and possibilities, unravelling and collapse. Bedlam at Botany Bay looks at people who found themselves not only at the edge of the world, but at the edge of sanity. It shows their worlds colliding

Cataloging source

ANL

Dewey number

994.41

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Target audience

adult