Publisher's Synopsis
"In reading the book, parts of Howitt's character made my skin crawl, but the uncovering of his life was revelatory . I believe the publication of Line of Blood will be at a very pertinent time" -- Bruce Pascoe
Line of Blood: The Truth of Alfred Howitt tells the full story of Australia's so-called 'ablest anthropologist'; the botanist, geologist, senior public servant and explorer Alfred Howitt-and ancestor of the author, Craig Horne.
Howitt first made his name in Australia as a bushman and explorer -- Mt Howitt and Howitt Plain in the Victorian Alps are named in his honour. That he was an extraordinarily capable polymath is not challenged. What this book challenges are the contributions of Howitt's anthropological conclusions, coupled with his social and political influences, in legitimising the murderous advance of white settlement upon the Australia landscape.
For Howitt, the 'line of blood' that followed white settlement was nothing more than the iron law of replacement-whereby an 'inferior race' is inevitably usurped by a 'superior civilisation'.
Howitt's racial ideologies facilitated a pattern of Australia's mechanical dismissal of First Nations peoples; identifying them as 'savages', 'blacks', and in need of saving through a determined white policy of paternalistic neglect.
