Books & arts
24 February 2014
We need our doctors to feel, writes Frank Bowden, but not so much that they stop thinking
Books & arts
21 February 2014
Politics is hard and democracy is messy. Brett Evans reviews two new books that help explain why it doesn’t all end in disaster
Books & arts
20 February 2014
Gwendolyn Gray Jamieson reviews an account of the genesis and chequered career of Labor’s national health insurance scheme
Retrospective
13 February 2014
Would bending be the bravest option for Israel?
Books & arts
11 February 2014
A new collection of letters traces the life of the “outrageously gifted” composer of West Side Story, writes Andrew Ford
Books & arts
24 January 2014
Chinese-Australian community leaders created a new perception of the Chinese in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, writes Kate Bagnall
Books & arts
22 January 2014
A new book encourages a different way of thinking about “news" and how it’s presented on television, writes Scott Bridges
Books & arts
17 January 2014
Whistleblowers fill a gap left by legislatures and the courts. How can they be protected without creating an accountability vacuum, asks Gabrielle Appleby
Books & arts
16 January 2014
Jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse and Ian Fleming provide the inspiration for four new novels, reviewed here by Brian McFarlane
Books & arts
14 January 2014
Melancholy and occasionally joyous, the story of two “squinty daughters” doesn’t quite justify the pictures, writes Darren Tofts
Books & arts
14 January 2014
Although they disagree on many points, Kofi Annan and Mark Mazower together illuminate the intricacies and rituals of international cooperation, writes Hilary Charlesworth
Books & arts
8 January 2014
Kay Saunders reviews Joan Beaumont’s account of Australia’s first world war
Books & arts
23 December 2013
Does the equation that infuses the work of truth commissions – that more memory equals more reconciliation – always meet the needs of people affected by widespread…
Books & arts
11 December 2013
Eleanor Hogan reviews a careful and often illuminating history of a northwestern Australian town
Books & arts
9 December 2013
Klaus Neumann reviews two books that put displaced people at the heart of contemporary history
Books & arts
5 December 2013
A new book shows how much Australia owes to canvas, writes Peter Spearritt
Books & arts
3 December 2013
In his desire to find the evil in Douglas Mawson, David Day overlooks the awkward tenderness and vulnerability that may lie at the heart of this flawed and driven man, writes…
Books & arts
2 December 2013
It’s not just sweatshop labour that keeps down the price of the stuff we buy, writes Brett Evans
Books & arts
2 December 2013
Richard Johnstone reviews Janet Lewis’s The Trial of Sören Qvist
Books & arts
29 November 2013
Sara Dowse reviews three new books about what it means to grow old
Books & arts
28 November 2013
How did an unelected campaign consultant come to exercise such influence over Labor’s 2013 campaign, asks Stephen Mills
Books & arts
15 November 2013
Three biographies reveal twentieth-century Australians in the thick of things, writes Frank Bongiorno
Books & arts
7 November 2013
A new book unpacks the complex relationship between politics and football in Spain, writes Scott Ewing
Books & arts
6 November 2013
As a new book argues, innovation isn’t “soldered to science,” writes Michael Gilding
Essays & reportage
23 October 2013
Charmian Clift’s Peel Me a Lotus has inspired Australian women travel writers for over half a century, but the result has been a quite different kind of writing,…
Books & arts
21 October 2013
Richard Johnstone reviews Ella K. Maillart’s account of a remarkable prewar journey across Europe and into Asia
Books & arts
21 October 2013
A new book argues that it is morally defensible to restrict migrants’ rights in order to give them access to the benefits of increased migration, writes Peter Mares
Books & arts
18 October 2013
Robin Jeffrey reviews a richly researched wake-up call from two distinguished India-watchers
International
10 October 2013
David G. Marr describes the genesis of his new book, a detailed look at a turning point in modern Vietnamese history
Books & arts
9 October 2013
By the time Ken G. Hall filmed Dad Rudd M.P., his film-making had come to reflect international popular culture as well as Australian traditions, writes Julieanne Lamond