James Boyce is an Australian author and historian based in

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

. He has written four major books on Australian history and the history of

Western thought Western philosophy refers to the philosophical thought, traditions and works of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with the ancient Greek philosophy of the pre-Socratics. ...

Early life and education

Boyce earned a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College (University of Tasmania), Christ College, one of the unive ...

in Geography and Environmental Studies.

Career

Boyce is an honorary research associate at the University of Tasmania.

Gambling industry

Following his writing of ''Losing Streak'', Boyce became closely related to efforts to control the poker machine industry in Tasmania and in Australia. This work built on his previous career in

social work Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

and

social policy Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD a ...

research. He has been called before

parliamentary committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

s to give evidence about the harms of the industry as well as the history, as well as working with members of parliament with similar goals. He has also written extensively in the Australian press on the topic, specifically about the deals that allowed Federal Group to gain a monopoly on Tasmania's two casinos and all the state's poker machines. He continued the fight against the Farrel family and their intervention into Tasmanian politics to ensure the continuation of their monopolies, and he was particularly scathing about their conduct during the 2018 Tasmanian state election, where Boyce claimed that "we are watching an election being bought before our eyes" due to the massive advertising blitz that the gambling industry poured into the campaign after the Labor Party promised to phase out all poker machines.

Accolades

He has won several awards for his books, including The Age Book of the Year, the Tasmania Book Prize twice, and the Colin Roderick Award. His books have been shortlisted for various other awards, including the Prime Minister's Literary Award, and the Victorian,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and Western Australian Premier's Book Awards.

Selected works

*''Imperial Mud: The Fight for the Fens''. Icon Books. 2020 *''Losing Streak: How Tasmania was gamed by the gambling industry''. Black Inc. Redback. 2017. *''Born Bad: Original Sin and the Making of the Western World''. Black Inc 2015, Counterpoint. 2016. *''1835: The Founding of Melbourne & the Conquest of Australia.'' Black Inc. 2011. *''Van Dieman’s Land.'' Black Inc. 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyce, James Anti-gambling advocates Australian writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)