Q&A with Karen Fox, author of Honouring a Nation: A History of Australia’s Honours System

Q&A with Karen Fox, author of Honouring a Nation: A History of Australia’s Honours System

Our Books Editor, Lyndon Megarrity, interviews Karen Fox, author of Honouring a Nation: A History of Australia’s Honours System (Canberra: ANU Press, 2022).   What inspired you to write a history of the Australian honours system? The history of honours is a subject that has intrigued me for a long time. I first became interested […]
Stricken Deer: Psychology and Counselling in Contemporary Australia

Stricken Deer: Psychology and Counselling in Contemporary Australia

Richard Trembath examines the increasing demand for mental health services in Australia.   I was a stricken deer that left the herd Long since; with many an arrow deep infixed My panting side was charged, when I withdrew To seek a tranquil death in distant shades . . . I see that all are wanderers, […]
Book Review – Symbols of Australia: Imagining a Nation

Book Review – Symbols of Australia: Imagining a Nation

Karen Fox has reviewed Melissa Harper and Richard White, eds., Symbols of Australia: Imagining a Nation (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2021).   Symbols of Australia: Imagining a Nation (NewSouth Publishing, 2021) is a marvellous new addition to our knowledge of Australia’s national imaginings. Encompassing 28 chapters on a range of national symbols, plus an informative and […]
Book Review – Australia & the Pacific: A History

Book Review – Australia & the Pacific: A History

Helen Gardner reviews Ian Hoskins’, Australia & the Pacific: A History  (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2021).    Titles of general histories generally reveal not just the broad parameters of their analysis but also the power relations of a specific historical period.  Australia and the Pacific: A History is an ambitious book which covers Australia’s engagement with […]
Book Review – Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and their Champions

Book Review – Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and their Champions

Cindi Davey (PhD candidate, James Cook University) reviews Ashley Hay’s Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and their Champions (Sydney: NewSouth, 2021).   The study of Australia’s eucalypts takes on a new urgency every time our fire season is particularly intense. Concerns around climate change and the ever-increasing carbon saturation of the global atmosphere also make […]
Book Review – Fighting Australia’s Cold War: The Nexus of Strategy and Operations in a Multipolar Asia, 1945-1965

Book Review – Fighting Australia’s Cold War: The Nexus of Strategy and Operations in a Multipolar Asia, 1945-1965

Peter Edwards has reviewed Fighting Australia’s Cold War: The Nexus of Strategy and Operations in a Multipolar Asia, 1945-1965, edited by Peter Dean and Tristan Moss (ANU Press, 2021).    The Korean War (1950-53) has often been called the forgotten war, but the term applies at least equally to the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) and the […]
Public Health Symposium – Hip-pocket First, Fairness Second: Australians and the Birth of Medicare

Public Health Symposium – Hip-pocket First, Fairness Second: Australians and the Birth of Medicare

‘Hip-pocket First, Fairness Second: Australians and the Birth of Medicare’ Dr Carolyn Holbrook Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University  
Public Health Symposium – ‘Isn’t it iconic? Investigating the past, present and future of Medicare as a public sector brand’

Public Health Symposium – ‘Isn’t it iconic? Investigating the past, present and future of Medicare as a public sector brand’

‘Isn’t it iconic? Investigating the past, present and future of Medicare as a public sector brand’ Dr Richie Barker School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University  
Public Health Symposium – ‘How Healthy is Health Journalism?’

Public Health Symposium – ‘How Healthy is Health Journalism?’

‘How Healthy is Health Journalism?’ Professor Matthew Ricketson and Dr Chris Scanlon School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University
Book Review – Australian Women Pilots: Amazing True Stories of Women in the Air

Book Review – Australian Women Pilots: Amazing True Stories of Women in the Air

Prudence Black has reviewed Australian Women Pilots: Amazing True Stories of Women in the Air, a new book by Kathy Mexted. The aviation industry has one of the world’s poorest workplace gender balances; it also tends to be very traditional and risk adverse.  Up until COVID 19 air traffic across the world was growing at […]
Q&A with Jenny Hocking, author of The Palace Letters

Q&A with Jenny Hocking, author of The Palace Letters

In our latest author Q&A, Jacquelyn Baker interviews Emeritus Professor Jenny Hocking about The Palace Letters, which describes her long and extraordinary campaign to gain access to the correspondence between the Australian Governor General Sir John Kerr and Queen Elizabeth II in the prelude to the dismissal of the Whitlam government on 11 November 1975. […]
Leading America and Biden’s new/old foreign policy: The exclusive new democracy club, trade-bloc or alliance?

Leading America and Biden’s new/old foreign policy: The exclusive new democracy club, trade-bloc or alliance?

By Digby Wren Australia faces unprecedented regional trade and security challenges in the aftermath of the Trump presidency and a continuing pandemic calamity. The Morrison government has been in lockstep with the Trump administration’s ‘Strategic Adversary’ approach to China. How will President-elect Joe Biden’s approach differ from his predecessor’s and how can the Morrison government’s […]