ROBERT MANNE: A POLITICAL MEMOIR – INTELLECTUAL COMBAT IN THE COLD WAR AND CULTURE WARS By Robert Manne La Trobe University Press (in conjunction with Black Inc), 2025 ISBN: 9781760645069 RRP: $59.99 (hb) Reviewed by Gerard Henderson Former treasurer Peter Costello launched Frank Knopfelmacher: Selected Writings (Connor Court) in Melbourne last year. Frank Knopfelmacher (1923-1995) [...]
TALES OF TWO POLITICIANS: A FRACTION TOO MUCH FACTION? RACE MATHEWS – A LIFE IN POLITICS by Iola Mathews Monash University Publishers 2024 ISBN: 9781922979810 RRP: $36.99 (pb) A LONG MARCH by Kim Carr Monash University Publishers 2024 ISBN: 9781922979872 RRP: $49.99 (hb) Reviewed by Keith Harvey Late in 2024, two books [...]
TAKING ON THE MASTERS OF CRITICAL THEORY IN LITERATURE INTERPRETING LITERARY TEXTS – A POST-KANTIAN VIEW By Michael Giffin Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2024 ISBN: 978 1 0364 1050 6 RRP: £69.99 (HB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson Scholars continue to debate the impact of German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) on the way we see ourselves, [...]
BREAKING THROUGH THE CORDON OF SILENCE MATTERS OF THE HEART – A MEMOIR By Jacinta Nampijinpa Price HarperCollins Publishers 2025 ISBN: 978 1 4607 6676 7 RRP: $36.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson This is a remarkable book, not just for its dramatic and honestly told life story but for what it represents to Australia [...]
HOLY LAND. HOLY WAR – THE SEEDS OF A CONFLICT GHOSTS OF A HOLY WAR – THE 1929 MASSACRE IN PALESTINE THAT IGNITED THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT by Yardena Schwartz Union Square & Co New York 2024 ISBN: 978 1 4549 4921 3 RRP: $55.99 (HB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson How does anyone explain the realities [...]
BORIS JOHNSON – AS HE SAW IT AND AS HE LIVED IT UNLEASHED By Boris Johnson William Collins 2024 ISBN 978-0-00 - 861020-9 (pb) RRP: $39.99 (PB) By Anne Henderson Without having read it, his enemies will say it’s self-serving, the political memoirs of a former prime minister who failed to achieve true greatness while [...]
BEYOND THE CONTROVERSY – JACKSON POLLOCK’S BLUE POLES AND GOUGH WHITLAM BLUE POLES - JACKSON POLLOCK, GOUGH WHITLAM, AND THE PAINTING THAT CHANGED A NATION by Tom McIlroy Hachette Australia, 2025 ISBN: 9780733651960 RRP: $34.99 (pb) Reviewed by Judith Pugh Tom McIlroy’s writing, the best kind of writing, has the immediacy and clarity of good [...]
THE JOURNALS OF HUGH TREVOR-ROPER THE CHINA JOURNALS – IDEOLOGY AND INTRIGUE IN THE 1960S edited by Richard Davenport Bloomsbury Academic 2022 ISBN:978-1-3502-7809-7 RRP: $29.99 (pb) Reviewed by Anne Henderson Hugh Trevor-Roper is best known for his The Last Days of Hitler. He is also much respected as an historian for his work on [...]
A CAPITAL DISASTER – BEFORE AND AFTER A BRISBANE FLOOD BRISBANE BREACHED: THE STORY OF A DROUGHT DEFAULTED FLOODPLAIN by David Topp Connor Court 2024 ISBN 9781922815781 RRP: $39.95 (pb) Reviewed by Deane McLennan Anyone who has grown up or lived in Brisbane in the last 50 years will have a story to tell [...]
NEVILLE WRAN’S MEDIA ANTAGONISTS THE ASSASSINATION OF NEVILLE WRAN by Milton Cockburn Connor Court, July 2024 ISBN: 9781923224148 RRP: $29.95 (pb) Reviewed by Gerard Henderson Milton Cockburn’s The Assassination of Neville Wran is an important book with an incomplete title. Neville Wran (1926-2014) was a successful Labor premier of New South Wales from 1976 [...]
