James Boyce – författare

According to the doctrine of original sin, all humans are born bad and only God’s grace can bring salvation. James Boyce shows how these ideas have shaped the Western view of human nature, and how the belief that we are all innately sinful retains a firm grip on Western consciousness and culture – even in the writings of avowed atheists such as Marx and Freud.Born Bad traces a fascinating journey from Adam and Eve all the way to Adam Smith and Richard Dawkins in this sweeping story of a controversial idea and its remarkable influence.

An internationally celebrated historian and highly original thinker, Inga Clendinnen compelled readers to re-examine accepted histories from new angles.Inga Clendinnen was one of Australia s greatest writers and historians. This selection covers the full scope of her work, from Tiger s Eye to Aztecs, from her Boyer Lectures to essays on all manner of topics. It is introduced by acclaimed historian James Boyce, who traces Clendinnen s life and evolving thought. Boyce writes that Clendinnen s ability to write serious history for a general readership was unrivalled in this country Her writings are an enduring testament to the truth that while we might live within the narrow moving band of time we call the present the secret engine of our present is our past, with its plastic memories, its malleable moralities, its wreathing dreams of desirable futures . With the profound moral concern of the best general reader, one of our finest historians brings the Holocaust close up and stares the Medusa down. Inga Clendinnen claims for history the same power as poetry or fiction to enter the silences and make them speak. David Malouf Her respect for the intelligence of her readers, her sacred sense of the moral responsibility of history, and her luminous prose won her a large and devoted public. Tom Griffiths

Economics for People and the Planet, a collection of essays by James K. Boyce on the environment, inequality and the economy, argues that there is not an inexorable trade-off between advancing human well-being and having a clean and safe environment. The goal of economic policy should be to grow the good things that improve our well-being and environmental quality and reduce the bad things that harm humans and nature. To reorient the economy for these ends, we will need to achieve a more egalitarian distribution of wealth and power. Global climate change – the most pressing environmental challenge of our time – adds urgency to this task and creates historic opportunities for moving towards a greener future. The audiobook version of Economics for People and the Planet features new chapters on the Green New Deal and the environmental costs of inequality. Foreword by Manuel Pastor.

Economics for People and the Planet, a collection of essays by James K. Boyce on the environment, inequality and the economy, argues that there is not an inexorable trade-off between advancing human well-being and having a clean and safe environment. The goal of economic policy should be to grow the good things that improve our well-being and environmental quality and reduce the bad things that harm humans and nature. To reorient the economy for these ends, we will need to achieve a more egalitarian distribution of wealth and power. Global climate change – the most pressing environmental challenge of our time – adds urgency to this task and creates historic opportunities for moving towards a greener future. The audiobook version of Economics for People and the Planet features new chapters on the Green New Deal and the environmental costs of inequality. Foreword by Manuel Pastor.

**WINNER OF THE HISTORY AND TRADITION CATEGORY, EAST ANGLIAN BOOK AWARDS 2020****SHORTLISTED FOR THE TASMANIAN LITERARY AWARD 2022****LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2021** 'A real page-turner ... a warning about what happens when the rich and powerful dress up their avarice as "progress" - a lesson we could do with learning today.' Dixe Wills, BBC Countryfile magazineFROM A MULTI-AWARD-WINNING HISTORIAN, AN ARRESTING NEW HISTORY OF THE BATTLE FOR THE FENS.Between the English Civil Wars and the mid-Victorian period, the proud indigenous population of the Fens of eastern England fought to preserve their homeland against an expanding empire. After centuries of resistance, their culture and community were destroyed, along with their wetland home - England's last lowland wilderness. But this was no simple triumph of technology over nature - it was the consequence of a newly centralised and militarised state, which enriched the few while impoverishing the many.In this colourful and evocative history, James Boyce brings to life not only colonial masters such as Oliver Cromwell and the Dukes of Bedford but also the defiant 'Fennish' them- selves and their dangerous and often bloody resistance to the enclosing landowners. We learn of the eels so plentiful they became a kind of medieval currency; the games of 'Fen football' that were often a cover for sabotage of the drainage works; and the destruction of a bountiful ecosystem that had sustained the Fennish for thousands of years and which meant that they did not have to submit in order to survive.Masterfully argued and imbued with a keen sense of place, Imperial Mud reimagines not just the history of the Fens, but the history and identity of the English people.

Winner of the 2009 Tasmania Book PrizeWinner of the 2008 Colin Roderick AwardAlmost half of the convicts who came to Australia came to Van Diemen’s Land. There they found a land of bounty and a penal society, a kangaroo economy and a new way of life.In this book, James Boyce shows how the convicts were changed by the natural world they encountered. Escaping authority, they soon settled away from the towns, dressing in kangaroo skin and living off the land. Behind the official attempt to create a Little England was another story of adaptation, in which the poor, the exiled and the criminal made a new home in a strange land.This is their story, the story of Van Diemen’s Land.Shortlisted in the 2009 Prime Minister''s Literary Awards, the 2009 NSW Premier''s Literary Awards, the 2010 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, the 2008 Age Book of the Year Awards, the 2008 Victorian Premier''s Literary Awards, the 2008 Queensland Premier''s Literary Awards, the 2008 NSW Premier''s History Awards and the 2008 Australian Book Industry Awards‘A brilliant book and a must-read for anyone interested in how land shapes people.’ —Tim Flannery‘The most significant colonial history since The Fatal Shore. In re-imagining Australia''s past, it invents a new future.’ —Richard Flanagan‘Like the best history, Van Diemen''s Land is not an artfully constructed narrative with the (inevitably inadequate) evidence banished to endnotes, but a dialogue between historian and reader as they explore the fragile sources, and the silences, together.’ —Inga Clendinnen‘The publication of Van Diemen''s Land signals an entirely fresh approach to Australian history-writing … This is a brilliant publication.’ —Alan Atkinson‘A fresh and sparkling account.’ —Henry ReynoldsJames Boyce is the multiple award-winning author of Born Bad, 1835 and Van Diemen’s Land. He has a PhD from the University of Tasmania, where he is an honorary research associate of the School of Geography and Environmental Studies.

The Award-Winning History of Colonial Melbourne

'James Boyce tells the true history of this country with rare clarity and an eye for the essential that never fails.' —David Marr

With the founding of Melbourne in 1835, a flood of settlers began spreading out across the Australian continent. In three years more land – and more people – was conquered than in the preceding fifty.

In 1835 James Boyce brings this pivotal moment to life. He traces the power plays in Hobart, Sydney and London, and describes the key personalities of Melbourne's early days. He conjures up the Australian frontier – its complexity, its rawness and the way its legacy is still with us today. And he asks the poignant question largely ignored for 175 years: could it have been different?

With his first book, Van Diemen's Land, Boyce introduced an utterly fresh approach to the nation's history. 'In re-imagining Australia's past,' Richard Flanagan wrote, 'it invents a new future.' 1835 continues this untold story.

'Anyone who calls Melbourne home – in fact anyone who calls Australia home – should read this book.' —Peter Mares

'A first-class piece of historical writing. Boyce is a graceful and robust stylist and a fine storyteller.' —Sunday Age

'Revisionist … unequivocal … sobering' —Malcolm Turnbull

Winner of the 2012 Age Book of the Year Award, the 2012 Age Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award and the 2013 Tasmania Book Prize

Shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award, the WA Premier's Book Awards, the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the Queensland Literary Awards and the Tasmanian Literary Prizes.