Another Couple of Books About Bounty (and Pitcairn Island)? Mutiny, Mayhem, Mythology: Bounty's Enigmatic Voyage. By Alan Frost. Sydney, Sydney University Press, 2018. 336 pp., illustrations, bibliography, index. ISBN 9781743325872 (pbk), 9781743325889 (ebook). AU$40.00 (pbk), AU$15.99 (ebook).; The Bounty from the Beach: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Disciplinary Essays. Edited by Sylvie Largeaud-Ortega. Acton, ANU Press, 2018. ix + 262 pp., illustrations, notes, bibliography. ISBN 9781760462444 (pbk), 9781760462451 (ebook). AU$48.00 (pbk), ebook free of charge.

Abstract

<p>In December 2018, I participated in a panel about Pitcairn Island history titled '"Strangers": Placing Insiders, Outsiders and the Microcosmic in Pacific Language and History' at the Pacific History Association (PHA) conference in Cambridge, England. Apart from a single conference in 2012 at Angwin College, California, it is likely that this was one of few occasions in which three academics who have been to Pitcairn Island had ever assembled a conference panel. We were gathered to present at the intersection of a breadth of topics ranging from empirical history, history of science, linguistics, film, and inter-island relations with Mangareva, all with Pitcairn Island as fulcrum-subject. Aside from myself, the other panellists were Alexander Mawyer, Tillman Nechtman and Adrian Young. We drew a decent crowd and it was enlivening to realize that Pitcairn Island history is a ripe topic within broader trends in Pacific history.</p>