Q&A with Jeff Sparrow, author of Crimes Against Nature

Q&A with Jeff Sparrow, author of Crimes Against Nature

Yves Rees interviews Jeff Sparrow about his recent book Crimes Against Nature (Scribe, 2021).   You’ve been writing about leftist politics for several decades, but this is your first incursion into the climate arena. What was the intellectual genesis of this book? I grew up back when activists could still consider environmental issues as a […]
Book Review – State and Society in Papua New Guinea, 2001-2021

Book Review – State and Society in Papua New Guinea, 2001-2021

Nicholas Ferns reviews R.J. May’s State and Society in Papua New Guinea, 2001-2021 (Canberra: ANU Press, 2022).   Over the past several decades, Ronald May has established himself as one of the most authoritative voices on Papua New Guinean politics. He is a prolific writer on a variety of topics, ranging from Papua New Guinean […]
Book Review – ‘Now is the Psychological Moment’: Earle Page and the Imagining of Australia

Book Review – ‘Now is the Psychological Moment’: Earle Page and the Imagining of Australia

Zachary Gorman reviews Stephen Wilks’ ‘Now is the Psychological Moment’: Earle Page and the Imagining of Australia (ANU Press, Canberra, 2020).   The fact that it has taken this long for long-serving Treasurer and brief Prime Minister Earle Page to receive a full-length political biography is testament to the understudied nature of Australian political history, […]
Q&A with Kath Kenny, author of Staging a Revolution

Q&A with Kath Kenny, author of Staging a Revolution

Jacquelyn Baker interviews Kath Kenny, author of Staging a Revolution: When Betty Rocked the Pram (Perth: Upswell, 2022).   Congratulations on the publication of Staging a Revolution, Kath! Your book tells the story of Betty Can Jump—a play produced by the Carlton Women’s Liberation Group and performed at the Pram Factory in 1972—and follows five […]
Review – Skin Deep: The Inside Story of our Outer Selves

Review – Skin Deep: The Inside Story of our Outer Selves

Thomas J. Kehoe reviews Phillipa McGuinness, Skin Deep: The Inside Story of our Outer Selves, Vintage, Sydney, 2022.   Phillipa McGuinness is an excellent writer and storyteller and in Skin Deep she takes the reader on a journey through the multifaceted dimensions of experience and the permutations of meaning associated with our skin. Skin is […]
Review – An Uncommon Hangman: The Life and Deaths of Robert ‘Nosey Bob’ Howard

Review – An Uncommon Hangman: The Life and Deaths of Robert ‘Nosey Bob’ Howard

Alana Piper reviews Rachel Franks, An Uncommon Hangman: The Life and Deaths of Robert ‘Nosey Bob’ Howard (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing 2022). 9781742237343. 432pp. RRP $34.99.   In this compelling biography, Rachel Franks explores the life of Robert Howard, New South Wales’ (NSW) longest-serving hangman, who performed the role diligently throughout the colony (later state) from […]
Q&A with Anna Clark, author of Making Australian History

Q&A with Anna Clark, author of Making Australian History

Carolyn Holbrook interviews Anna Clark, author of Making Australian History (Sydney: Vintage, 2022)   Congratulations on the publication of this fascinating, thought-provoking and highly readable history of Australian history-making. The book eschews a linear narrative in favour of categories of analysis, such as ‘Silence’, ‘Distance’, ‘Time’, ‘Imagination’ and ‘Contact’. Can you tell us how you […]
Review – Sneaky Little Revolutions: Selected Essays of Charmian Clift.

Review – Sneaky Little Revolutions: Selected Essays of Charmian Clift.

Jacquelyn Baker reviews Nadia Wheatley (ed), Sneaky Little Revolutions: Selected Essays of Charmian Clift (Sydney: NewSouth, 2022).   When I was an undergraduate student, I was enrolled in a unit called Australian Literature. The three novels that were discussed in this subject were Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career (1901), Tim Winton’s Breath (2008) and Christos […]
Speech by Emeritus Professor Graeme Davison at the Melbourne launch of The Work of History: Writing for Stuart Macintyre

Speech by Emeritus Professor Graeme Davison at the Melbourne launch of The Work of History: Writing for Stuart Macintyre

Melbourne Athenaeum Library, 15 July 2022 The Work of History: Writing for Stuart Macintyre, edited by Peter Beilharz and Sian Supski,Melbourne University Press. Many words– true and heartfelt words– have already been spoken and written about Stuart and his remarkable legacy.  Among them, I particularly remember those spoken by his daughter Mary on the day […]
Q&A with Claire E.F. Wright, author of Australian Economic History (ANU Press, 2022)

Q&A with Claire E.F. Wright, author of Australian Economic History (ANU Press, 2022)

Lyndon Megarrity interviews Claire E.F. Wright about her new book Australian Economic History (ANU Press, 2022)   Your book on the history of Australian economic history has a strong focus on local, national and global academic networks among staff at Australian tertiary institutions. What inspired you to take this approach to your work? I’ve had […]
Book Review – Liberalism and its Discontents

Book Review – Liberalism and its Discontents

Joshua Black reviews Francis Fukuyama’s Liberalism and its Discontents (Profile; 2022).   It is particularly timely to be reading and thinking about contemporary liberalism. The United States Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade, the re-emergence of high inflation, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have given liberal intellectuals pause for thought. Against this backdrop, […]