Inside Story

Books & arts Red in tooth and claw Brett Evans 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 Italy’s best-known comedian meets the ghost of Mussolini James Panichi 18 February 2014 Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement made stunning gains at Italy’s last election, writes James Panichi. But as the controversy over its guiding… Books & arts Picnics and politics Kate Bagnall 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 Essays & reportage Cold war, soft diplomacy Alan Fewster 14 January 2014 As the Cold War intensified in the mid fifties, Australia saw a special role for itself in disseminating information and propaganda in Southeast Asia, writes Alan Fewster

Essays & reportage History, heritage and the ageing dictator R.J.B. Bosworth 31 October 2013 Uzbekistan is still writing and rewriting its own history, reports a recently returned R.J.B. Bosworth International A moment when everything seemed possible David G. Marr 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 The man who volunteered for Auschwitz John Besemeres 3 October 2013 John Besemeres reviews a remarkable book and recounts the career of its equally remarkable author Essays & reportage Casey, the dirt boys and the grey material Alan Fewster 2 September 2013 A cross-dressing MI6 agent and a shadowy British anti-communist propaganda outfit were key players in the development of Australia’s cold war “soft diplomacy” program

Books & arts Such a bloody wonderful place Sylvia Lawson 28 April 2013 Sylvia Lawson reviews John Hughes’s documentary about the poet Judith Wright, and Pablo Larraín’s No Ken Loach’s dreamland David Hayes 28 April 2013 The renowned director’s new film, which uses the socialist mood of 1945 to assail the world Margaret Thatcher created, is bad history and worse politics, says David Hayes Books & arts The rally-car driver and the one-time dentist Duncan Hewitt 28 April 2013 Duncan Hewitt reviews two witty new books about China’s faultlines and prospects National affairs How Merlin and Bayliss worked their magic Richard Johnstone 24 April 2013 The State Library of New South Wales’s breathtaking trove of photographs from the 1870s