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Books & arts
The lion and the Lion City
Chris Lydgate
12 February 2013
Chris Lydgate
reviews a new biography of Stamford Raffles, the contradictory colonialist who founded Singapore, and an account of a trip through the modern-day city state…
From the archive
The right kind of middle class?
Frank Bongiorno
19 December 2012
What happened when journalist Peter Coleman assembled a star-studded group of writers in 1962 to rethink the way intellectuals viewed Australia?
Britain’s economic tunnel
David Hayes
3 December 2012
An endless recession has changed politics and livelihoods. But in a many-sided national argument there is no consensus about its lessons, says
David Hayes
Essays & reportage
It was time: Mick Young’s triumph
Stephen Mills
29 November 2012
Not only was the 1972 election a watershed for Labor, it also created the modern political campaign
National affairs
A certain curiosity
Norman Abjorensen
28 October 2012
Two key figures in the postwar development of the Labor Party never met, writes
Norman Abjorensen
National affairs
Notes from a low-key governor-generalship
Paul Rodan
17 October 2012
Are the intriguing revelations from the notebooks of Paul Hasluck part of a larger trove, asks
Paul Rodan
From the archive
Dick Casey’s forgotten people
Stephen Mills
25 July 2012
The Liberals’ innovative 1949 election campaign offered voters an alternative worldview
Essays & reportage
William Chidley’s answer to the sex problem
Frank Bongiorno
4 July 2012
Born to a free-thinking family in Melbourne around 1860, William Chidley became an energetic campaigner with some surprisingly respectable supporters, writes
Frank
…
Books & arts
The sense of islandness
Ian McShane
28 June 2012
Ian McShane
reviews Henry Reynolds’s new history of his home state
Books & arts
Retro gastronomy
Dean Ashenden
28 June 2012
Dean Ashenden
looks at Australians’ enthusiasm for new foods and our readiness to adapt, improvise and reinvent
National affairs
How to win an election
Brett Evans
5 June 2012
A timeless guide for politicians with a sting in the tail
France’s first facebooks
Daniel Nethery
31 May 2012
A recent French exhibition traced the rise of the photograph as a proof of identity and a form of surveillance, writes
Daniel Nethery
Essays & reportage
“Sitting on a tractor, reading a book”
Bill Gammage & Ken Inglis
28 February 2012
Ken Inglis
and
Bill Gammage
pay tribute to the distinguished historian, and occasional
Inside Story
contributor, Hank Nelson, who died earlier this month
On Green Lotus Street
Duncan Hewitt
1 February 2012
Shanghai doesn’t understand the appeal of its oldest precinct, writes
Duncan Hewitt
Essays & reportage
The British ensign
Henry Reynolds
24 January 2012
Australia’s attachment to a flag with the Union Jack in the top corner puts it in odd company
The smoke this time
David Hayes
1 November 2011
An encampment around St Paul’s Cathedral in London casts a new light on this icon of British wartime defiance. But the epic days of the 1940s may have something to teach the…
National affairs
A hundred years later, it’s time for another vital voting reform
Brian Costar
6 October 2011
Out of the clash of interests in federal parliament in 1911 came an enduring electoral reform, writes
Brian Costar
. An update is long overdue
Books & arts
Sensational fiction in Marvellous Melbourne
Kylie Mirmohamadi & Susan K. Martin
5 October 2011
Susan K. Martin
and
Kylie Mirmohamadi
look at a sub-genre of popular writing that spanned the globe from London to Melbourne
Essays & reportage
Directors of the Liberals
Don Whitington
4 October 2011
Fifty years ago Australia’s major parties had limited resources and few staff. But one party had an edge over the other, writes
Don Whitington
in this essay first…
National affairs
Amid the panic, a sense of purpose
Frank Bongiorno
20 September 2011
Sixty years ago, H.V. Evatt successfully resisted strong public support for draconian anti-communist legislation, writes
Frank Bongiorno
. Is there a lesson for Labor in 2011?
Books & arts
Colonialism’s prequel
Lorenzo Veracini
16 September 2011
Julia Clancy-Smith’s
Mediterraneans
looks at a neglected period with contemporary resonance, writes
Lorenzo Veracini
Books & arts
Letters from home
Judith Brett
13 September 2011
Judith Brett
reviews Heather Henderson’s collection of letters from her father, Robert Menzies
Essays & reportage
On reading Mark McKenna’s biography of Manning Clark
Nicholas Gruen
25 August 2011
Manning Clark went on a grand quest, writes
Nicholas Gruen
. But perhaps it was the journey rather than the arrival that mattered
Books & arts
Moralising the colonial past
Tim Rowse
23 June 2011
Let’s allow our history to be complicated, argues
Tim Rowse
in this review of two new books about black–white relations
National affairs
Making war
Brian Toohey
9 June 2011
Australians have as little idea about why we are fighting in Afghanistan as they had about why we entered the first world war, writes
Brian Toohey
Ah, the olden days!
Frank Bongiorno
5 June 2011
Another history war under another conservative government.
Frank Bongiorno
reports from London
National affairs
Conspicuous commemoration
David Stephens
22 May 2011
Drawing on newly released FOI documents,
David Stephens
examines a case of over-building in Canberra
Books & arts
Art in internment
Glenn Nicholls
12 May 2011
Deported after the first world war, Paul Dubotzki had created a remarkable record of life as an internee, writes
Glenn Nicholls
International
Indonesia’s dangerous silence
Richard Tanter
28 April 2011
Richard Tanter
reports on a controversial intervention in Indonesian history, culture and memory
Books & arts
Billy Hughes and the end of an Empire
Jill Kitson
23 April 2011
Jill Kitson
reviews a new account of the wartime leadership of the diminutive Australian prime minister
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