Is the history of Aboriginal "protection" essentially something to be celebrated, albeit with some well-intentioned mistakes? Or is white treatment of Aboriginal people, as Justice Brennan commented in the Mabo case, a legacy of unutterable shame?

Contents: 'Good intentions' and the dangers of repeating the past -- Red in tooth and claw: the frontier during the South Australian period -- Social Dawinism, progress, evolution and the purse-strings: Baldwin Spencer and the period to 1918 -- Eugenics, Capricornia-style: Chief Protector Dr Cecil Cook -- The dominance of the bloody-minded professor: Aboriginal policy during and after World War II -- 'Giese's empire': assimilation prior to the Equal Wages case -- The end of assimilation: after the Equal Wages case 1966-1971 -- Conclusion: best intentions and the stolen generation.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-224) and index.