The Death Of William Gooch

Greg Dening
Paperback
Out of stock
The Death Of William Gooch

Subjects

History

Published

30 September 1991

ISBN

9780522846928

Subjects

History

Imprint

Melbourne University Press

The Death Of William Gooch

Greg Dening
Greg Dening uses the incident of the murder of William Gooch, the young astronomer on board the Daedalus, as the basis for a penetrating study of historical narrative and meaning.
William Gooch died at Waimea on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian chain. Pahupu, Hawaiian warriors 'cut-in-two' by their tattoos, killed him there. He was only twenty-two. Gooch's is a short life indeed on which to base a book. But Greg Dening uses the incident of his murder as the basis for a penetrating study of historical narrative and meaning. Gooch, the young astronomer on board the Daedalus, is written into history through the perceptions and intentions of the historian. This is 'history's anthropology'. The layers of interpretation and meaning are woven into the fabric of the history itself. And this is the historian entwined in the fragments of the past that are sought, found, reworked and retold.
William Gooch died at Waimea on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian chain. Pahupu, Hawaiian warriors 'cut-in-two' by their tattoos, killed him there. He was only twenty-two. Gooch's is a short life indeed on which to base a book. But Greg Dening uses the incident of his murder as the basis for a penetrating study of historical narrative and meaning. Gooch, the young astronomer on board the Daedalus, is written into history through the perceptions and intentions of the historian. This is 'history's anthropology'. The layers of interpretation and meaning are woven into the fabric of the history itself. And this is the historian entwined in the fragments of the past that are sought, found, reworked and retold.

Greg Dening

Greg Dening was Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Melbourne. His works include Performances, Islands and Beaches, The Death of William Gooch and the prize-winning Mr Bligh's Bad Language.

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Paperback
Out of stock