Title:   Elizabeth and John
Author:   Atkinson Alan
Publisher:   UNSW Press NewSouth
Binding:   Paperback
Edition:   2024
APN:   9781761170317 or ISBN(1761170317)
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$34.99
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**Winner, 2023 Ernest Scott Prize **

**Winner, 2023 NSW Premier's History Awards, Australian History Prize**
**Shortlisted, 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Awards, Australian History Prize**

A landmark and revealing joint biography of Elizabeth and John Macarthur, from one of Australias most respected historians.

Elizabeth and John Macarthur were the first married couple to travel voluntarily from Europe to Australia, arriving in 1790, both aged 23, within three years of the initial invasion. John Macarthur soon became famous in New South Wales and beyond as a wool pioneer, a politician, and a builder of farms at Parramatta and Camden. For a long time, Elizabeths life was regarded as contingent on Johns and, more recently, Johns on Elizabeths.

In the multi-award-winning Elizabeth and John, acclaimed historian Alan Atkinson draws on his work on the Macarthur family over 50 years to explore the dynamics of their strong and sinewy marriage, and family life across two generations. With the truth of Elizabeth and John Macarthurs relationship much more complex and deeply human than other writers have suggested, Atkinson provides a finely drawn portrait of a powerful partnership.

Based on fifty years of research and reflection by one of this countrys most original and creative scholars and finest writers, here is the story of the world made by settler Australias greatest family, the Macarthurs. No Australian historian has ever explored the inner lives of a married couple, their family and their milieu with such skill, passion and intensity. No one has brought to any subject in Australian history deeper insight into dreams, ambitions and tragedy that the British occupation of this continent entailed. Elizabeth and John is a stunning achievement by one of Australias greatest-ever historians. — Frank Bongiorno

Professor Atkinsons portrait is intimate and affectionate. It reads well while maintaining the highest standards of academic rigour. — The Canberra Times

Through this remarkable study of two key figures in the history of early colonial New South Wales and especially of their marriage, Alan Atkinson here conducts a master class in connecting the personal, the intimate and the local with worldwide processes of colonisation, migration and capitalist expansion. In his capacious historical vision, family life and connections in all their complexity become the thread that holds colonial history, and perhaps history generally, together. — Ann Curthoys

This magisterial work takes us into a captivating world of 19th-century Australia through a compelling, eloquent, and beautifully drawn study of the remarkable lives of John and Elizabeth Macarthur. — Joy Damousi

Nobody sees as far into the minds and hearts of the early Australian colonists as Alan Atkinson. In this fascinating double-portrait, based on a lifetimes research, he reveals Australias first power-couple as never before: together and apart; as they saw themselves and as they were seen by their friends and enemies; at the apex of a fast-developing colony and at the far edge of global networks of family affection, commercial ambition and imperial power. A tour de force of scholarship, imagination, and literary power. — Graeme Davison

With trademark lyricism, Alan Atkinson builds a rich and moving picture of the social, intellectual and material world of the Macarthurs. Elizabeth and John transforms our understanding of early New South Wales and two of its most significant figures. — Lisa Ford
The Macarthurs have long been the subjects of caricature, even wilful distortion. In this superb book, Alan Atkinson has restored their humanity, exploring their characters, their relationships between themselves and with others, the ideas and influences that shaped them and how they in turn helped shape colonial Australia. This is history at its best, based on vast research and deep understanding. Stephen Foster
This was evidently a labour of love and a fascination for Atkinson. The reader is treated to such a detailed level of knowledge and understanding that one could easily think Atkinson knew Elizabeth and John, personally. Possibly, after all his research, Atkinson felt he did. — Hearsay
As with a novel, I found myself wondering what the characters were doing while I was away from the book. Inside Story
Enthralling and powerful. Alan Atkinson writes with the easy, lyrical elegance that comes of deep historical understanding and fine, slow history. In Elizabeth and John he weaves together the lives of the Macarthurs with the life of the mind, and brilliantly navigates the mysterious mirror maze between them. — Grace Karskens