Australian Books

Racy reading

4 October 2014 9:00 am

In a field which is often characterised by polemics and hand-wringing, Noel Pearson has emerged as both a considered thinker…

Head Beaters

27 September 2014 9:00 am

Ah, democracy. The informed will of the majority. If only the practice was as simple as the theory. When it…

Thought bubbles

30 August 2014 9:00 am

It is not really a surprise that political parties produce a certain number of oddballs; the scary thing is that…

Guilt trip

9 August 2014 9:00 am

If you had to pick one emotion to characterise Australia’s attitude towards East Timor, it would be guilt. We are…

Oz Islam: Eid 2014, Lakemba Mosque, Sydney

Muslim integration

2 August 2014 9:00 am

Growing up is hard enough at any time; coping with additional cross-currents of race and religion is a whole new…

Battered and beaten down

26 July 2014 9:00 am

It’s surely a fancy, the conviction that my first memory of newspapering came as a three-year-old, but I swear the…

Bronwyn Bishop: personal attack

Unfair and unbalanced

19 July 2014 9:00 am

The thesis of this book is that there is something wrong with politics in Australia. Bryant is right, but not…

Labor partisan’s economic tale

12 July 2014 9:00 am

The old saw about economics being a dismal science turns out, on the evidence of this short but interesting piece…

Perils of activist judges

5 July 2014 9:00 am

Democracy in ancient Athens was often criticised by the aristocracy for not showing significant respect for them and their superior…

Labor renewal?

28 June 2014 9:00 am

Ben Chifley once spoke about a shining light on the hill. By the time that Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard…

2016… will she or won’t she?

Hawkish Hillary

21 June 2014 8:00 am

If you were contemplating running for President of the United States, a national book tour would be a handy pointer…

Out of his depth

14 June 2014 9:00 am

There are individuals who, when fate hands them the opportunity for greatness, have risen to the challenge. Rob Oakeshott was…

Rupert Murdoch: a newspaperman at heart

With enemies like these…

17 May 2014 9:00 am

Rupert Murdoch’s last five years have been the worst of his career, but a new biography by Sydney University’s Rodney Tiffen is so unfair that even Peter Oborne, one of the newspaper magnate’s severest critics, found himself warming to him

Australia: a land with news

Bold history

17 May 2014 9:00 am

This is a bold attempt to write the history of Australia in 1,200 pages of narrative. A huge team of…

Long goodbye: Malcolm Fraser with Jimmy Carter

Radical nationalist

17 May 2014 9:00 am

Many of Australia’s former prime ministers have been content to spend their political afterlife stoking the embers of their own…

Incoming: anti-Vietnam war protests during President Johnson’s visit, Sydney, 22 October 1966

A noble cause

10 May 2014 9:00 am

I supported Australia’s Vietnam commitment in the decade between 1965 (when the Menzies Coalition government deployed combat forces to South…

‘Qui, moi?’

26 April 2014 9:00 am

In 2008, Bob Carr was on an ABC panel show, pontificating about the wisdom of decisions of the US Supreme…

Letting go

19 April 2014 9:00 am

We are not, by our nature, a militaristic people, and it is significant that our most well-known military venture was…

A sober critic

12 April 2014 9:00 am

Let’s get one thing straight: gullibility is not a virtue. This simple principle appears to be difficult to grasp for…

Hero and villain

29 March 2014 9:00 am

There is a story told of Gough Whitlam as Prime Minister speaking with his Treasurer, Bill Hayden. It is late…

The new Garnaut Report

8 February 2014 9:00 am

Yes, economics really is a dismal science, if this book is to be believed. Even when things are going right,…

Arthur Phillip: high-minded idealism

Our founding father

25 January 2014 9:00 am

Founding fathers of proud nations are venerated. From an early age, children learn about their achievements and sacrifices. A King…

Sound military history

18 January 2014 9:00 am

Scott Fitzgerald once made the famous observation that there are no second acts in American life. Perhaps. But Mike Carlton…

The persecution of Cory

11 January 2014 9:00 am

Cory Bernardi’s book is a reminder of the traditional values that made Australia and inspired earlier generations to fight for…

Our colourful stories

4 January 2014 9:00 am

That’s girt by sea, as in the national anthem. As a title, it fits the overall tone of the book,…