Late nineteenth-century Australia claimed one of the world's highest standards of living and was seen as a successful example of the transplantation of British culture. Yet beneath the surface prosperity lay uncertainty and conflict, including clashes among churches, the crash of the 1890s, pressure for federation, and the challenging of traditional views of education, women's roles, and the family. This volume takes a skeptical look at common perceptions of Australia in the Victorian era, concentrating on human values rather than on the rhetoric of national achievement.