History and Community : Essays in Victorian Medievalism

The essays in this volume, originally published in 1992, examine some of the pervasive implications of Victorian medievalism, and assess its creative manifestations and dual capacities for expression of reformist anger and escapist retreat. Some of the emotional and intllectual reasons for the strong Victorian attraction to ‘medieval’ history and litereature are discussed and emblematic responses to this attraction are examined.

The 4 volumes in this set, originally published between 1980 and 1983, bring to light and focus on the conflict between Japan and Australia and Japan and the USA. Timothy Hall’s volumes, richly illustrated with black & white photographs, used highly contentious documents as their sources and give fascinating insights into a period of Australian history which is sometimes less than gloious. John J. Sbrega’s tour de force is not only one of the most extensive annotated bibliographies on the USA and Japan in World War 2 ever published, but it also provides invaluable information on lesser known but no less important aspects of the conflict.