Review: Conspiracy Nation – reflections from the classroom

Are we a conspiracy nation? According to journalists Ariel Bogle and Cam Wilsons new book, Conspiracy Nation, Australia is no more so than any other nation. However, as we have seen in recent years, conspiracies can grow at an alarming rate if left unchecked, spilling from the fringes of society into the public domain. The […]

Book Review: A Fair Day’s Work

Sean Scalmer, A Fair Day’s Work: The Quest To Win Back Time (Melbourne University Press, 2025) Sean Scalmer’s new book, A Fair Day’s Work: The Quest To Win Back Time, arrives with impeccable timing and an interventionist intent. It is hard to imagine a better moment to release the first dedicated scholarly treatment on struggles over […]

Book Review: The Colombo Plan

David Lowe, The Colombo Plan. Development Internationalism in Cold War Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2025). The Colombo Plan was much larger than an Australian story. This new scholarly study depicts it embedded in a complex of regionalisms, an aid grouping which while lacking in formal organisation functioned largely on consensus and bilateral goodwill while avoiding […]

Book Review: “Total Defense” and “The Contest over National Security”

Andrew Preston, Total Defense: The New Deal and the Invention of National Security, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge Ma, 2025; and Peter Roady, The Contest over National Security: FDR, Conservatives and the struggle to claim the most powerful phrase in American politics, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Ma, 2024. We are fortunate […]

Book Review: No Power Greater

Liam Byrne, No Power Greater: A History of Union Action in Australia Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 2025. As a labour law academic who has recently developed a strong interest in the history of labour regulation and policy in Australia, I have recently been exploring and enjoying the extensive and rich labour history literature. The […]

Book Review: Debating the Nation

Review, Debating the Nation: Speeches from the House of Assembly, 1972-1975, edited by Brad Underhill, Keimelo Gima and Helen Gardner Today, 16 September, Papua New Guinea (PNG) celebrates the 50th anniversary of its independence from Australian administration. Amidst the anniversary celebrations, many will look back to the events surrounding the achievement of independence and […]

Book review – Vaccine Nation

Peter Hobbins reviews Raina MacIntyre’s Vaccine Nation: Science, Reason and the Threat to 200 Years of Progress (NewSouth Publishing, 2025). Pandemics are not rational affairs. Transforming a ‘pandemic’ into a ‘panic’ seemingly takes little more than deleting three letters. Cultural and emotional shifts can be similarly rapid. Yet as we have re-learned in the […]

Book review: Albert Palazzo on the ‘Big Fix’ for Australia’s national security

Mia Martin Hobbs reviews The Big Fix: Rebuilding Australia’s National Security (Melbourne University Press, 2025) Six months into the second Trump presidency, Australia’s ‘great and powerful friend’ has imposed tariffs on Australian imports and stood up the Prime Minister at their only face-to-face meeting. Meanwhile, the AUKUS agreement – conceptualised by Australian politicians as the backbone […]

Book Review – Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism

Peter Hobbins reviews Steven Hamilton and Richard Holden’s Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How We Crushed the Curve but Lost the Race (UNSW Press, 2024). It makes for interesting reading when you realise that a book’s subtitle should have been ‘we told you so’. In Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism, academic economists Steven Hamilton and Richard Holden historicise […]

Book Review – Beyond the Broken Years: Australian Military History in 1000 Books

One can’t change the past, but you can choose who you get your History from. Stanley’s guidance and wisdom is an indispensable guide to navigating a crowded and often perilous field

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