Recent publications
A slave obeys, a player chooses
When you escaped, not long ago, from the burning wreckage of a passenger jet crashed in the middle of the Atlantic, you entered a lonely obelisk rising from the water. Inside that obelisk, a bathysphere waited to take you down to the art...
Free to gamble: The roles of the gambling industry and policy in a modern Australian society
Hitler's grotesque economics
Sinclair Davidson reviews The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze(Allen Lane, 2007, 799 pages). In the acclaimed television series Band of Brothers the Webster character abuses a column of German...
The ideological baggage of old Europe
John Roskam reviews The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648 to 1815 by Tim Blanning (Penguin, 2007, 736 pages). On the television show Backyard Blitz, household gardens are designed and built in a couple of hours. In Britain in the eighteenth century...
Sporting prowess obscured by the history warriors
Richard Allsop reviews Tom Wills: His Spectacular Rise and Tragic Fall by Greg de Moore (Allen & Unwin, 2008, 336 pages). The 150th anniversary of the first game of Australian Football in 1858 has not passed without acrimony. Some historical...
The machinery of the 2007 federal election
John Shipp reviews Inside Kevin07: The People, The Plan, The Prize by Christine Jackman (Melbourne University Press, 2008, 320 pages). If you are looking for hard-hitting political analysis of the Kevin07 campaign in the 2007 federal election,...
The brave new world of lifestyle capitalism
Benjamin Hourigan reviews The 4-hour Workweek: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss (Vermillion, 2008, 308 pages). 'I believe that life exists to be enjoyed and that the most important thing is to feel good about...
Your child is a wuss
When Belgian Gardens, a Townsville state primary school, banned cartwheels and handstands in August, it ignited a media frenzy. But as bizarre as it is, the handstand ban is only one incidence of a widespread trend affecting all Australian...
The Dark Mind of the Copywriter
Chris Berg reviews Novels in Three Lines by Felix Fénéon (NYRB Classics, 2007,176 pages) Ernest Hemingway once said that his best story was his shortest story, deliberately limited to just six words - ‘For sale: baby...
Cops, not liquor regulations, reduce street violence
On one of its websites, the Queensland Government is remarkably honest about its attitude towards law-abiding businesses-‘the ability to trade is a privilege, not a right.' According to politicians and the press, late at night, Australian...