Book reviews: Their fiery cross of union: A retelling of the creation of the Australian Federation, 1889–1914 by William Coleman, Connor Court Publishing, Redland Bay, 2021, xvii + 447 pp., $44 (paperback), ISBN 9781922449665

In the lead-up to the 2001 centenary of Federation, the committee in charge of celebrations was dismayed to learn that Australians were ambivalent at best and ignorant at worst about how their country supposedly came to be. In contrast to the United States, where the so-called Founding Fathers are celebrated, Australia’s federators are largely forgotten. The committee released a chiding television campaign asking: “What sort of a nation would forget the name of its first Prime Minister?”