Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard

Judith Brett, Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2004, 260 Pages, Paperback, : Reviewed by Karen Pickering in the May 2005 issue.

Judith Brett has produced an expansive and densely empirical account of the ideological formation around which the Liberal Party of today was originally formed. Along the way, she considers the importance of global events, domestic peculiarities and the powerful force of personality that characterised the success of Liberal Prime Ministers, most persuasively Lyons, Menzies, and finally, Howard. This is a work that has been widely praised by commentators on both sides of politics, and received acclaim for its contribution to existing scholarship. It is an impressive document, not merely an historical recounting but a penetrating analysis of the philosophical concerns that have motivated both ... read more.
 

Axis of Deceit: the story of the intelligence officer who risked all to tell the truth about WMD and Iraq

Andrew Wilkie, Melbourne: Black Inc, 2004, 200 Pages, Paperback, $29.95: Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress in the May 2005 issue.

I like direct language. And there is certainly nothing mealy-mouthed about whistle-blowing, former intelligence officer, Andrew Wilkie's Axis of Deceit. The title is a superb play on George W Bush's phrase 'axis of evil' from his State of the Union Address of January 2002. It is a strong counterpoint to the soppy 'Coalition of the Willing'. Wilkie's chapter titles are also strong: 'Taking a Stand', 'An Unnecessary War', 'The Big Lie', 'Blame Game', 'Public Disservice' and 'Silencing Dissent' offer a sample. There can also hardly be a stronger start than his opening sentence: 'I can't recall precisely the origin of my decision to betray my government'. This is gripping stuff and Wilkie ... read more.
 

Crude: The Story of Oil

Sonia Shah, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, 2005, 230 Pages, Paperback, $24.95: Reviewed by Eve Vincent in the May 2005 issue.

It begins as slimy dregs at the bottom sea. It oozes and burns. It powers Western economies. Suburbia depends on it. It has been denounced as the root cause of wars and human rights abuses. It's not going to last forever. This is the dramatic story of oil. 'By the 1850s', writes Sonia Shah as the story of modern oil dependence starts to unfold, 'people in Pennsylvania had noticed black grease floating on top of their creeks and springs.' After experimenting with its use, oil's potential as an energy source was quickly realised. As they had done for water and salt, people sunk wells to release the 'miraculous new liquid'. By 1862 drilling in Pennsylvania was bringing up 3 million barrels ... read more.
 

Crunch Time: How to live a more ethical and meaningful life without giving up all your worldly goods, joining a commune or losing your sense of humour

Mike Hanley and Andrian Monck, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, 2004, 248 Pages, Paperback, $24.95: Reviewed by Susan Currie in the May 2005 issue.

Mike Hanley and Adrian Monck are both journalists, the former based in Sydney, the latter in London, who met while studying at the London Business School. They share a common interest in, but not necessarily similar views on the 'big picture' issues confronting our twenty-first century society. This book is an invitation to the general public to engage with those issues in the same way they both have. 'We are curious about how to live a half-decent life in a world gone mad, both for our own sakes and for our kids who arrived on the scene and snapped us out of our youthful self-obsession'. (p3) The book presents issues such as the environment, globalisation, corporate power, and security ... read more.
 

Encountering Terra Australis: The Australian Voyages of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders

Jean Fornasiero Peter Monteath and John West-Sooby, Kent Town: Wakefield Press, 2004, 412 Pages, Hardcover, $49.95: Reviewed by Daniel Fazio in the May 2005 issue.

Encountering Terra Australis is an account of the Australian voyages of discovery from 1801 to 1803 of the British Captain, Matthew Flinders, and his French counterpart, Nicolas Baudin. The authors state the purpose of the book is to give equal acknowledgement to the achievements of both Captains (pp vii-x). Unlike Flinders, Baudin has largely been ignored and/or forgotten by history and Fornasiero, Monteath and West-Sooby have sought to redress this imbalance. The book is divided in two parts. Part One: 'Voyages', tells the story of the two expeditions from the perspective of the two Captains. In this section, Fornasiero, Monteath and West-Sooby have reproduced the words of the respective ... read more.
 

Fatal Attraction: Reflections on the Alliance with the United States

Bruce Grant, Melbourne: Black Inc, 2004, 184 Pages, Paperback, $24.95: Reviewed by Patrick Allington in the May 2005 issue.

This slim book, which the author calls an 'extended essay' (p 1), is a thoughtful commentary on the complexities of Australia's relationship with the US. Although it is written in the shadow of the unilateral invasion of Iraq, Bruce Grant writes with depth about the long term. His thesis of Australia as an ally of the US and as a middle-sized nation-state with a stable political system and a strong economy is cautiously optimistic: We have a need to be co-operative on foreign policy issues with the United States, but no need to be subservient. On the contrary, our promise is that globally minded middle powers like us can be the midwives of peace and prosperity in the twenty-first century. ... read more.
 

Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah

Olivier Roy, London: Hurst, 2004, 350 Pages, Paperback, £16.95: Reviewed by Robert Imre in the May 2005 issue.

Olivier Roy has produced another brilliant analysis of the spread of Islam and the political character of this global phenomenon. This book operates as an extension of Roy's earlier works on Islam, in particular The Failure of Political Islam. In Globalised Islam, Roy contends that the rise of neo-fundamentalism in a newly constructed 'Islamic world' is a direct consequence of a Westernisation process rather than a totalised global Islamic movement towards fundamentalism. This has a number of serious implications for Western nation-states, principally European nations with large Muslim minority populations. Roy is examining 'Islamism' and its political connotations with specific reference to ... read more.
 

Into the Future: The neglect of the long term in Australian politics

Ian Marsh and David Yencken, Melbourne: Black Inc, 2004, 90 Pages, Paperback, $15.95: Reviewed by Martin Leet in the May 2005 issue.

What are our leaders doing about the long-term policy challenges facing the Australian nation? The short answer is: next to nothing. Our leaders are obviously aware of the issues. The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, is responsible for these words of wisdom: 'We have got to have a capacity in this country to have a sensible discussion about long-term policy issues without everything being distorted and blown out of the water by misrepresentation'. Easy to say, but neither Howard nor his parliamentary colleagues, including those in the Labor Party, are rectifying the lack of long-term policy competence. Politicians continue to play a game with each other that has no relationship to ... read more.
 

My Natives and I

Daisy Bates, Victoria Park: Hesperian Press, 2004, 250 Pages, Paperback, $35.00: Reviewed by Christine Cheater in the May 2005 issue.

I made my first acquaintance with Daisy Bates in primary school. Her name was on the list for the obligatory 'famous Australians we should all know and love' project. My next meeting with Daisy occurred at university when I picked up a copy of The Passing of the Aborigines while researching an assignment. These brushes with the enduring figure of Daisy Bates -- the research topic -- reflect not only her almost iconic status (at least in the field of Australian Indigenous studies) but also the controversies surrounding both her life and her writings. The controversies start with her personal life which is shrouded in mystery for, as her biographers discovered, Daisy Bates told lies about ... read more.
 

Pioneering Irrigation in Australia to 1920

Gerard Blackburn, Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publications, 2004, 220 Pages, Paperback, $39.95: Reviewed by Melissa Bellanta in the May 2005 issue.

Pioneering Irrigation is a nuts-and-bolts history of Australian irrigation to 1920. Its author, Gerard Blackburn, was a long-time soil expert for the CSIRO who spent twenty years researching his material. Beginning when irrigation first appeared in Tasmania during the 1820s, Pioneering Irrigation covers developments in all the colonies/states over the following century. As an historian interested in irrigation in this country, an overview of this kind was exactly what I was looking for some years ago. There were certainly many regional studies of irrigation: among them, JM Powell's Watering the Garden State (1989) (on Victoria), his Plains of Promise, Rivers of Destiny (1991) (on ... read more.
 

Quarterly Essay: Breach of Trust. Truth, Morality and Politics

Raimond Gaita, Melbourne: Black Inc, 2004, 104 Pages, Paperback, $13.95: Reviewed by Tony Smith in the May 2005 issue.

While the advent of modern terrorism in September 2001 created fear among westerners, the response by the US Administration and its allies has caused even greater apprehension in the minds of those who have not lost or abandoned the ability to think. By their conduct of the 'war on terror' Bush, Blair and Howard threaten well founded beliefs about the desirability of states obeying international law and behaving morally. Further, they have caused many thinkers to become disillusioned about the general population's interest in distinguishing between good and bad behaviour in their leaders. In this fractured atmosphere, Raimond Gaita's calm voice is encouraging. First, his mature analyses of ... read more.
 

Rats and Revolutionaries: The Labour Movement in Australia and New Zealand 1890-1940

James Bennett, Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2004, 214 Pages, Paperback, $44.00: Reviewed by Matthew Lamb in the May 2005 issue.

In the introduction to this study, James Bennett quotes at length from an article -- a comparative survey of Australian and New Zealand war memorials -- written by K S Inglis and Jock Phillips, published in the early 1990s. It is a remarkable passage, and worth repeating here because it goes to the heart of what Bennett is doing in his own work. 'If Australia and New Zealand did not exist, it would have been necessary for social science to invent them. Take a large sample of people from the United Kingdom and settle them in another hemisphere, as far as possible away from the motherland. Separate them into two batches, placing one in a large territory and the other in a small one. Choose ... read more.
 

Samurai in the Surf: The Arrival of the Japanese on the Gold Coast in the 1980s

Joe Hajdu, Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2005, 237 Pages, Paperback, : Reviewed by Narrelle Morris in the May 2005 issue.

This book deals with the Japanese presence in modern Australia. Joe Hajdu is a cultural geographer and it is no surprise, therefore, that his work focuses on the energetic locality of the Gold Coast and the cultural impact of the 'arrival' of the Japanese in the late 1980s and into the 1990s. Hajdu extends upon his earlier research in this area to explore the incoming and outgoing wave of Japanese individuals and investment in this period. The main text of this book consists of nine chapters. Chapters one and two cover the rise of Japan's economy and the reasons behind the choice of Australia as an investment destination. Perhaps this book's greatest contribution to this area of research ... read more.
 

The Diaries of Miles Franklin

Paul Brunton ed, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, 2004, 304 Pages, Paperback, $39.95: Reviewed by Deborah Jordan in the May 2005 issue.

Miles Franklin embodies a significant strand of Australian feminism. My Brilliant Career -- or My Brilliant (?) Career as she wanted it known -- is a national icon. The importance of Franklin's diaries cannot be overstated, and Paul Brunton's selection is beautifully edited, annotated, and illustrated. Many of the people referred to in Franklin's diaries have been painstakingly identified, a crucial task. The first question readers might ask is why the selection is only from 1932 to 1954, from when Franklin returned to Australia, permanently, at the age of fifty-three. Is the title of the book misleading? Jill Roe, the Franklin scholar, tells us these twenty-two years of diaries are ... read more.
 

The Diary of Emily Caroline Creaghe, Explorer

Peter Monteath ed, North Adelaide: Corkwood Press, 2004, 118 Pages, Paperback, : Reviewed by Amanda Day in the May 2005 issue.

Originally published in the Lett's Australasian Diary and Almanac for 1883, the diary of explorer, Emily Caroline Creaghe has been republished with an introduction by Peter Monteath, Senior Lecturer in Australian History at Flinders University. Corkwood Press are known for their publication of journals of other explorers including Charles Sturt and Ludwig Leichhardt. Born in 1860, Creaghe spent her early life in India before her father retired from his post in the Royal Artillery. Her family returned to England before migrating in 1876 to Australia, settling at Lavender Bay. During a visit to her sister and brother-in-law in Goodna, near Brisbane, Caroline met Harry Creaghe, whom she ... read more.
 

The Vocal Citizen: Labor Essays 2004

Glenn Patmore ed, Melbourne: Arena Printing and Publishing, 2004, 216 Pages, Paperback, $27.95: Reviewed by Michael Alexander de Percy in the May 2005 issue.

Reinvigorating politics through citizen participation is a key focus of The Vocal Citizen. A collection of essays and speeches by fifteen academics and policy practitioners, edited by Glenn Patmore, this book outlines useful approaches to address public distrust of democratic institutions and cynicism towards politics. Not surprisingly, centre-left political themes dominate the essays, with many contributors focusing on 'universal citizenship in a good society' as an effective philosophical model to empower citizens in political decision making. Neo-liberal policies and market forces are considered the major enemies of democratic principles, effectively reducing 'the notion of citizen to ... read more.
 

Visits Home: Migration experiences between Italy and Australia

Loretta Baldassar, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2001, 408 + 16pp, 235 X 154 Mm, 16pp B&w Plates, Paperback, $39.95: Reviewed by Christine Choo in the May 2005 issue.

Visits Home is a well written and researched anthropological text in which the migration experiences of linked families from one place, San Fior in the north of Italy, to Perth, Western Australia, are closely analysed. It is also a deeply personal account of the Australian-born author's initial visit to the place from where her parents, their extended family and associates migrated, and her connection with extended family members and their community in San Fior. By making the journey to the 'home country' of her parents Baldassar follows the footsteps of countless other children of migrants and of the migrants themselves whose affirmation of their identity and sense of well-being are linked ... read more.
 

Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words, Contemporary Cliches, Cant and Management Jargon

Don Watson, Milsons Point: Random House, 2004, 358 Pages, Hardcover, $32.95: Reviewed by Sue Bond in the May 2005 issue.

The world where weasel words are used is one in which people are defined as customers * and to consume is to live. If you are killed, particularly in war, you are said to have been attrited, taken out, lit up or degraded. If you are sacked from your job, you are downsized, decruited, iced (have an involuntary career event), dejobbed, rightsized, made redundant, re-engineered or made subject to an efficiency gain output. If you die in hospital, you have suffered a negative patient (or client) outcome. It is the world of mission statements, team players, torture lite and lifestyles, ordinary Australians and bullet points. Don Watson has an agenda (hard or soft?) and that is to alert us to the ... read more.
 

Zombies, Lilliputians and Sadists: The Power of the Living Dead and the Future of Australia

Boris Frankel, Fremantle: Curtin University Books, 2004, 336 Pages, Paperback, $29.95: Reviewed by Kris Brankovic in the May 2005 issue.

'Zombies, Lilliputians and Sadists: The Power of the Living Dead and the Future of Australia' is the final instalment in Boris Frankel's long-running critique of 'contemporary Australia'. It began in 1992 with the (similarly) imaginatively titled 'From the Prophets Deserts Come' and continued in 2001 with 'When the Boat Comes in: Transforming Australia in the Age of Globalisation'. Boris Frankel is a former university professor and radio, newspaper and television commentator who describes his work as 'an updated version of classical political economy which attempts to synthesise cultural and environmental issues with politics, philosophy, sociology and economics'. Frankel has expounded much ... read more.