I was a bit surprised at how quickly this book took off. Especially so because it grew from my own irritation at the ways that pre-colonial Australian history was often marketed and told. Simply put, 1787 was an experiment in charting a larger history of Australia, its first peoples, and its place in the world before the advent of permanent European occupation in early 1788. I wanted to go past narratives of discovery, disrupt the politics of the present, and push the limits of the available evidence.