Publisher's Synopsis
How do we define culture? - and how do we specify popular culture? Private Pleasures, Public Leisure, the first general history of Australian popular culture, covering the period from 1788 to the present, begins with these questions, gives lively and provocative answers, and challenges our views on how Australian society evolved. Until now, much of Australian cultural history has been written from the perspective of a search for Australian identity. This study is more concerned with how cultural values and institutions were imported and then re-worked by the Australian people to meet the needs of their new society.
