Australia’s Second Chance

George Megalogenis, author of The Australian Moment, reads Australia's history as the story of a country on its second chance to prosper. For most of the nineteenth century it was the richest nation in the world, a pioneer of democracy and a magnet for migrants, but its last big boom gave way to a fifty-year bust in which it lost its riches and nerve and closed its doors. Starting in 1788 with the first contact between locals and migrants, he traces the key events through to the present. He pairs newly available economic data with new conversations with past leaders, Malcolm Fraser's final major interview among them, to ask how the country can keep its prosperity this time.

A roundup of books chief executives recommend reported that Dow chief executive Andrew Liveris had taken a liking to it.