Browsing No 253 - August 2003 by Issue Date
Now showing items 21-40 of 40
-
Tensions in the Neighbourhood. "Continental Drift: Australia’s Search for a Regional Identity" by Rawdon Dalrymple and "Making Australian Foreign Policy" by Allan Gyngell and Michael Wesley. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)Dalrymple’s book is an exercise in thoughtful restraint. It provides an updated overview of the evolution of Australian foreign policy. In this respect, "Continental Drift" is a worthy successor to Sir Alan Watt’s seminal ... -
We’re All Culturalists Now. "Cultural History in Australia" by Hsu-Ming Teo and Richard White. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)The essays in this collection find culture in literature, gardens, landscape, tourism, social distinctions, racial and ethnic identities, memories, psychology and much else. Cultural studies proceed from the postessentialist ... -
Broad-brush History. "A Short History of Indonesia: The Unlikely Nation?" by Colin Brown. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)This is a welcome addition to the historical literature about Indonesia. Aimed at new readers with limited or no knowledge of Indonesia, and written in an informal and accessible style, it makes an interesting contrast ... -
Three Sleuths. "Master's Mates" by Peter Corris, "Kittyhawk Down" by Garry Disher and "Something Fishy" by Shane Maloney. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)If we are to believe Aristotle, or the Chicago neo-Aristotelians (R.S. Crane, Richard McKeown, et al.), or even bluff old Squire Henry Fielding, then plot is the mainstay of drama, as of the novel. This has often been held ... -
Tenacious Tiger. "Thylacine: The Tragic Tale of the Tasmanian Tiger" by David Owen and "The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine" by Robert Paddle. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)The Tasmanian Tiger or thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) continues to stalk the Tasmanian imagination. Miasmas resembling it figure in reports from tourists and bushwalkers, who happen upon the slinking apparition in the ... -
Marriage of Minds. "Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience" by M.R. Bennett and P.M.S. Hacker. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)This book is a joy to read. It is the fruit of collaboration across disciplines and continents between a neurophysiologist and a philosopher. They have written a polemical work that is a model of clarity and directness. ... -
Perpetual Fall. "The Fall" by Jordie Albiston. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)Jordie Albiston's latest collection opens with a remarkable poem about a woman falling from the Empire State Building and falling, at the same time, through the story of her life. Some poems work in a more limited way, as ... -
1621 and All That. "Literary Culture in Jacobean England: Reading 1621" by Paul Salzman. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)A crucial difference between Salzman's work and more conventional literary histories is its privileging of reading over writing: he aims to cover what was readable in 1621, not simply what was written then. His book begins ... -
Dream on. "Dream Home" by Mark Wakely. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)A fascination with the kinds of abodes we humans inhabit, and dream about, is the central theme around which Mark Wakely has spun his wide-ranging observations, anecdotes and personal stories. The topic lends itself to as ... -
An Exclusive Club. "The Complete Book of Great Australian Women: Thirty-six Women Who Changed the Course of Australia" by Susanna de Vries. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)The book works best as a sort of extended "Who's Who", introducing readers to a host of captivating female writers, artists, activists and innovators. But whether through lack of editorial guidance or resources, there has ... -
Patagonian Sojourn. "Bluestocking in Patagonia" by Anne Whitehead. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)In "Paradise Mislaid", Anne Whitehead captivated readers with a nicely judged blend of elements. Here was a documentary that interwove two travellers' tales, each with the resonance of quest narratives. Those 'peculiar ... -
Gallery Notes.
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)Art is a strange posing of discoveries, a display of what was no more than possible. For it is the task of the creative artist to come up with ideas which are ours, but which we haven't thought yet. In some cases, it is ... -
Insouciant Chic. "Lina Bryans: Rare Modern 1909-2000" by Gillian Forwood. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)Lina Bryant's painting "The Babe is Wise" captures the 'insouciant chic' of the New Woman in 1940: independent and self-assured, the subject stares at the viewer from beneath a sharply angled hat. A portrait of the artist's ... -
An Artist Speaks to His Model. [poem]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08) -
Dressed for Deco. "Art Deco: 1910-1939" by Charlotte Benton, Tim Benton and Ghislaine Wood (eds). [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is currently hosting a 'sumptuous' survey of the Art Deco period. Quoting curator Ghislaine Wood that the central themes are 'fashion, glamour, commerce', "Time" magazine’s review presses ... -
Honour Games. "Man of Honour: John Macarthur – Duellist, Rebel, Founding Father" by Michael Duffy.[review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)As I read this book, serious questions were being asked about the honour of three governments: the British, the US and our own. Did they all lie so as to justify war against Iraq? Honour still matters, even at a time when ... -
An Ethical Newsman. "The Man Who Saw Too Much: David Brill, Combat Cameraman" by John Little. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)This book is about 59-year-old, Tasmanian-born David Brill, who has covered events from most of the world’s hot spots: Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Africa, South and Central America, the Middle East and eastern Europe. (The ... -
Oh Dennis! "Lillee: An Autobiography" by Dennis Lillee. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)Oh Dennis! For four decades, we've had to forgive your indiscretions and blemishes. We’ve done so willingly, because you were not only the fast bowler of a generation, but of that generation’s milestones. For many Australians, ... -
The Missing Captain. "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" by Robert Holden. [review]
(Australian Book Review, 2003-08)The perils of a certain kind of historical writing are painfully demonstrated in "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea", billed as 'the life of Australian whaling captain, William Chamberlain: a tale of abduction, adventure and ...