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Books & arts
Books & arts
What are we talking about when we talk about China?
John Fitzgerald
15 March 2018
Books
| Is China a different kind of democracy, or simply a self-preserving one-party state?
Books & arts
The not-so-tragic commons
Jane Goodall
12 March 2018
Books
| Following in the footsteps of Nobel prize-winner Elinor Ostrom, two new books make the argument for public property and the public good
Books & arts
War’s long shadow
Tom Hyland
8 March 2018
Books
| A new account of postwar Australia challenges the myth that veterans were always treated with respect and sympathy
Books & arts
Up to a point, Professor Hamilton
Frank Bongiorno
8 March 2018
Books
| Has Clive Hamilton written what one critic called a “McCarthyist manifesto”?
Books & arts
Pygmalion subverted
Julie Rigg
7 March 2018
Cinema
| Of this year’s Oscar contenders,
Phantom Thread
seems most likely to endure
Books & arts
The talent of Lili Boulanger
Andrew Ford
7 March 2018
Despite her early death, the French composer left a remarkable legacy
Books & arts
The randomised route to better government
Mike Steketee
28 February 2018
The story of how a cure for scurvy was found, then lost, then found again offers a vital lesson for policy-makers
Books & arts
The politician as hero
Jane Goodall
19 February 2018
Our TV critic reviews the ABC’s two-part documentary
Hawke: The Larrikin and the Leader
, first screened in February 2018
Books & arts
Asia’s rise: the rules and the rulers
Graeme Dobell
15 February 2018
Review essay
| As the regional balance continues to shift, resolving the tension between history and geography is becoming more urgent for Australia
Books & arts
More Melbourne Recital Centre than Bird’s Basement
Andrew Ford
13 February 2018
Music
| Pianist Andrea Keller’s new work might or might not be jazz, but it’s certainly poetic
Books & arts
A losing game? Social democracy’s trial by ordeal
Frank Bongiorno
11 February 2018
Books
| Centre-left parties are struggling everywhere. Can they adapt?
Books & arts
A sort of farewell
Richard White
2 February 2018
Books
| This new edition of John Rickard’s pathbreaking book is a reminder that he anticipated many of the concerns of subsequent generations of historians
Books & arts
Was Derek Freeman “mad”?
Martha Macintyre
28 January 2018
The controversial critic of anthropologist Margaret Mead was a man driven to extremes
Books & arts
How the Show went on
Paul Rodan
28 January 2018
Books
| A former communist and a former Catholic activist combine forces to cast new light on the organisation that helped fuel the Labor split
Books & arts
Diversity… for the others
Dean Ashenden
24 January 2018
Books
| A senior vice-chancellor argues for big changes in tertiary education — but not in universities
Books & arts
How the public interest went missing in action
Carmela Chivers
22 January 2018
Books
| Is the US economy suffering from an overriding malady — and could Australia become infected?
Books & arts
Confounded expectations
Julie Rigg
19 January 2018
Cinema
| Archetypes are challenged in Warwick Thornton’s latest film
Books & arts
Getting along
Janna Thompson
16 January 2018
Books
| Most people want to live an ethical life, argues Michael Ignatieff in his latest book
Books & arts
Operation Sovereign Borders: a prehistory
Jeff Crisp
16 January 2018
Books
| What can the 1970s and 80s tell us about where we are today?
Books & arts
Getting somewhere or going nowhere? Either prospect is inviting
Jane Goodall
15 January 2018
Television
| Our reviewer is gripped by SBS’s venture into slow TV
Books & arts
Doubling down
Jane Goodall
8 January 2018
Television
| As the debate over violence in Melbourne intensifies,
Romper Stomper
ups the ante so high it loses touch with reality
Books & arts
An Iced VoVo and a broken heart
Frank Bongiorno
5 January 2018
Books
| Beyond the headlines it generated, Kevin Rudd’s memoir helps explain why he lost the prime ministership
Books & arts
Down the rabbit hole
Jane Goodall
20 December 2017
Television
| The year’s viewing had an appropriate air of unreality
Books & arts
It’s hard to put a lid on the world
Klaus Neumann and Karina Horsti
20 December 2017
Candice Breitz’s compelling video installation, and its renaming, has been met with an unsettling silence
Books & arts
Writers writing about writers and writing
Susan Lever
18 December 2017
Books
| Publishers seem to prefer other writers — rather than critics — to write about writers
Books & arts
What is power?
Sara Dowse
18 December 2017
Books
| Mary Beard writes with characteristic verve about the long history of men silencing women
Books & arts
“What have I become?”
Tom Hyland
14 December 2017
Books
| Critics of Chris Masters’s account of special forces in Afghanistan have deflected attention from the book’s key message
Books & arts
ASEAN as a bloody miracle
Graeme Dobell
12 December 2017
Books
| Somehow, this extraordinarily diverse group of countries has held together for half a century. Can it last?
Books & arts
Wild conjecture
Andrew Ford
11 December 2017
Want to think anew about Mozart? Try Geoffrey Lancaster’s latest recording
Books & arts
Inside the tent
Jock Given
7 December 2017
Books
| Is Gareth Evans’s “incorrigible optimism” evidence-based?
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