Absolute Danism?

Absolute Danism?

James C. Murphy reviews Sumeyya Ilanbey, Daniel Andrews: The Revealing Biography of Australia’s Most Powerful Premier (Allen & Unwin, 2022), 312pp.   After his father’s business literally exploded, Daniel Andrews’ family was left with next to nothing. Bob Andrews had invested everything in his Glenroy milk bar. It was left in ruins after the supermarket […]
A ‘fruitful period of opposition’: Whitlam and telecommunications reform

A ‘fruitful period of opposition’: Whitlam and telecommunications reform

By John Doyle   Historian Frank Bongiorno recently suggested that Gough Whitlam’s achievements as opposition leader in the lead-up to Labor’s election victory in 1972 ‘should grab our attention’ because he succeeded ‘both in keeping governments accountable and in preparing for office’. The origins of his government’s positive legacy, says Bongiorno, lay in ‘a fruitful […]
Q&A with Lyndon Megarrity, author of Robert Philp and the Politics of Development

Q&A with Lyndon Megarrity, author of Robert Philp and the Politics of Development

Stephen Wilks interviews Lyndon Megarrity, author of Robert Philp and the Politics of Development (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Press, 2022)   Congratulations, Lyndon, on your new book. Let’s start with the essential facts – who exactly was Robert Philp and what is he known for? The Scottish-born Robert Philp is known primarily as the co-founder […]
Book Review – Emperors in Lilliput: Clem Christesen of Meanjin and Stephen Murray-Smith of Overland

Book Review – Emperors in Lilliput: Clem Christesen of Meanjin and Stephen Murray-Smith of Overland

Richard Trembath reviews     Jim Davidson, Emperors in Lilliput: Clem Christesen of Meanjin and Stephen Murray-Smith of Overland, (Melbourne: The Miegunyah Press, 2022).   I don’t want to go back to the days of Tony Abbott, but I have always thought that anybody who attempts a biography deserves at least a minor order of knighthood.  […]
Book Review – Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters, Australia’s first filmmaking team

Book Review – Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters, Australia’s first filmmaking team

Sharon Connolly reviews Mandy Sayer, Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters, Australia’s first filmmaking team (NewSouth Publishing, 2022).   Mandy Sayer’s Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters makes the long wait for a book about the Australian filmmaking team worthwhile.  It’s a sparkling account of the sisters’ lives, well researched and timely. Their cinematic careers were brief and peaked […]
Book Review – My Giddy Aunt and her Sister Comedians

Book Review – My Giddy Aunt and her Sister Comedians

Lyndon Megarrity reviews Sharon Connolly, My Giddy Aunt and her Sister Comedians, Upswell Publishing, Perth, 2022.   This is a family history revolving around three lively performers with a talent to amuse: the versatile professional whistler, saxophonist, singer, comic and all-round entertainer Gladys Connolly, her equally talented and driven brother Keith, as well as his […]
Book Review – Saving the Reef: The Human Story Behind One of Australia’s Greatest Environmental Treasures

Book Review – Saving the Reef: The Human Story Behind One of Australia’s Greatest Environmental Treasures

Julie McIntyre reviews Rohan Lloyd, Saving the Reef: The Human Story Behind One of Australia’s Greatest Environmental Treasures (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2022).   The title of this superb book has two meanings. Saving the Reef locates environmental campaigns to prevent oil and mineral extraction in the Great Barrier Reef between 1967 and […]
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 […]
Democracies are fragile. Australians must act urgently to safeguard  ours

Democracies are fragile. Australians must act urgently to safeguard  ours

AAP/Lukas Coch Carolyn Holbrook, Deakin University The solicitor-general’s recent finding that former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s furtive accrual of ministerial portfolios “fundamentally undermined” the principles of responsible government has drawn attention to the precarity of democracy. In seeking to safeguard our democracy, we must consider the extent to which Australians’ long-standing apathy about our democratic […]