Q&A with Rose Butler and Eve Vincent, authors of Love Across Class

Q&A with Rose Butler and Eve Vincent, authors of Love Across Class

Jacquelyn Baker interviews Rose Butler and Eve Vincent about their book Love Across Class (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2024).   Congratulation on the publication of your book, Rose and Eve! I found it to be an insightful and thought-provoking read that sparked conversations about class with my partner. This is not just a book about […]
‘Survival sex’, ‘mob justice’ and more: the first independent study of abuse in the Australian Defence Force is  damning

‘Survival sex’, ‘mob justice’ and more: the first independent study of abuse in the Australian Defence Force is  damning

Mia Martin Hobbs, Deakin University “Participants expected the costs of war, but they were not prepared for the costs of service,” explain Ben Wadham and James Connor in their new book, the first independent study of military institutional abuse in the Australian Defence Force. Warrior, Soldier, Brigand draws on interviews with nearly 70 survivors and […]
Book Review – The Chinese in Papua New Guinea: Past, Present and Future

Book Review – The Chinese in Papua New Guinea: Past, Present and Future

Claire Lowrie reviews Anna Hayes, Rosita Henry and Michael Wood’s (eds) The Chinese in Papua New Guinea: Past, Present and Future, (Canberra: ANU Press, 2024)   China’s increasing engagement with countries across the Pacific region is cause for concern amongst policy makers in Australia and the US. It is also the subject of regular, and […]
Book Review – Uncertainty and Emotion in the 1900 Sydney Plague

Book Review – Uncertainty and Emotion in the 1900 Sydney Plague

Richard Trembath reviews Philippa Nicole Barr’s Uncertainty and Emotion in the 1900 Sydney Plague*, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024).  ISSN 2632-1068 (online)   I was unaware of the Cambridge Element series until I accepted the offer of reviewing this recent addition to their program.  Having taught for many years in university courses based on the […]
Book Review – Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia

Book Review – Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia

Richard Trembath reviews Evan Smith, Jayne Persian and Vashti Jane Fox (eds), Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia* (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2023), 266 pages including footnotes, introduction and index.   Australian writer Dennis Glover states in the Guardian (25 August 2024) that ‘we are entering a new age of savagery and organised […]
Book Review – Liberalism as a way of life

Book Review – Liberalism as a way of life

Georgina Downer reviews Alexander Lefebvre’s Liberalism as a way of life, (NewSouth, 2024)   The term ‘liberal’ is likely to inspire admiration or loathing depending on the company you keep. It’s also likely to be understood differently by everyone you ask. The definition eludes us; there are national distinctions such as the differences between North […]
Book Review: The Australian Embassy in Tokyo and Australia–Japan Relations

Book Review: The Australian Embassy in Tokyo and Australia–Japan Relations

Hirokazu Matsui reviews Kate Darian-Smith and David Lowe’s (eds.), The Australian Embassy in Tokyo and Australia–Japan Relations (ANU Press, 2023)   In 2017, as a postgraduate student in Japan, I took a course run by David Carter, who then held the visiting professorship at the Center for Pacific and American Studies (CPAS) at the University […]
Book Review – Mandates and Missteps: Australian Government Scholarships to the Pacific − 1948 to 2018

Book Review – Mandates and Missteps: Australian Government Scholarships to the Pacific − 1948 to 2018

Nicholas Hoare reviews Anna Kent’s Mandates and Missteps: Australian Government Scholarships to the Pacific − 1948 to 2018 (Canberra: ANU Press, 2024).   ‘Are Australian universities racist?’ This was one of the main provocations of a recent PhD seminar where the student – a scholarship recipient from the Pacific Islands – expressed their frustration with […]
Book Review – Justice in Kelly Country: The Story of the Cop Who Hunted Australia’s Most Notorious Bushrangers

Book Review – Justice in Kelly Country: The Story of the Cop Who Hunted Australia’s Most Notorious Bushrangers

Matthew Allen reviews Lachlan Strahan, Justice in Kelly Country: The Story of the Cop Who Hunted Australia’s Most Notorious Bushrangers (Clayton: Monash University Publishing, 2022).   Justice in Kelly Country   is an engaging blend of family and police history. This is the story of Lachlan Strahan’s great-great grandfather, Senior Constable Anthony Strahan, and his career […]
Book Review – John Büsst: Bohemian artist and saviour of reef and rainforest

Book Review – John Büsst: Bohemian artist and saviour of reef and rainforest

Russell McGregor reviews Iain McCalman, John Büsst: Bohemian artist and saviour of reef and rainforest (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2024). 264pp + 8pp insert of colour and monochrome illustrations. ISBN 9781761170096 (Paperback), RRP $36.99.   Iain McCalman’s biography of John Büsst carries endorsements by a scintillating array of Australia’s historians. They’re well deserved, for this is […]
Book Review – Crossed Lines: Disruption, Politics and Reshaping Australian Telecommunications

Book Review – Crossed Lines: Disruption, Politics and Reshaping Australian Telecommunications

Nicholas Brown reviews John Doyle’s Crossed Lines: Disruption, Politics and Reshaping Australian Telecommunications  (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2022).   Crossed Lines tracks an archetypical story in the undoing of the ‘Australian settlement’  – a ‘transition from a system of rigid state monopolies in the 1960s to a competition-based model in the 1990s’ (p.193). John Doyle’s […]
Book Review: Abortion Care is Health Care

Book Review: Abortion Care is Health Care

Jacquelyn Baker reviews Barbara Baird’s Abortion Care is Health Care (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2024)   In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned the ruling set in 1973 by Roe vs Wade. This was a landmark case that ‘recognised that the decision to continue or end a pregnancy belongs to the individual, not […]