Richard Waterhouse is Bicentennial Professor of Australian History and head of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney. His other books include From Minstrel Show to Vaudeville: the Australian Popular Stage, 1788-1914 (1990); The Principal Club: a History of the Australian Jockey Club (with Martin Painter, 1992); Private Pleasures, Public Leisure: a History of Australian Popular Culture Since 1788 (1995); and The Vision Splendid: a Social and Cultural History of Rural Australia (2005).