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CURRENT ISSUE August 2006 No. 283 $8.95

CONTENTS

LETTERS
Sally McDonald, Michael Sariban

MEDIA
Ming’s Legacy Bridget Griffen-Foley

POLITICS
Nick Carter (ed.): The Howard Factor AND George Megalogenis: The Longest Decade Neal Blewett
Rod Barton: The Weapons Detective Richard Broinowski

EDUCATION
Derek Bok: Our Underachieving Colleges Glyn Davis

JEWISH STUDIES
Michael Fagenblat, Melanie Landau and
Nathan Wolskiin (eds): New under the Sun Tamas Pataki

MIDDLE EAST
Norman G. Finkelstein: Beyond Chutzpah and Idith Zertal: Israel’s Holocaust Jonathan Pearlman
David J. Goldberg: The Divided Self Geoffrey Brahm Levey

POEMS
Chris Wallace-Crabbe
Dorothy Porter
Kate Middleton

MEDIA
Graham Stewart: The History of the Times Gideon Haigh

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY ESSAY
Truth and Fiction: Judith Wright as Historian Tom Griffiths

FOOD
Judith Armstrong: The Maestro’s Table Gay Bilson

ARCHITECTURE
Harriet Edquist and Richard Black: The Architecture of Neil Clerehan Dimity Reed

BIOGRAPHY
Peter Yule: Ian Potter Brenda Niall
Ross McMullin: Will Dyson Iain Topliss

MEMOIR
Helga Griffin: Sing Me That Lovely Song Again Christina Hill
Diane Cilento: My Nine Lives Robert Brain

COMMENTARY
Passages to England Ian Britain

POETRY
John Tranter: Urban Myths Martin Duwell
M.T.C. Cronin: The Flower, The Thing AND Jane Williams: The Last Tourist Rose Lucas
John Kinsella: America or Glow Anthony Lynch
Craig Sherborne: Necessary Evil Steve Evans

ESSAYS
Martin Langford: Microtexts Kerry Leves

JOURNALS
Nicholas Birns (ed.): Antipodes Melinda Harvey
Phillip Edmonds and Dominique Wilson (eds.): Wet Ink, Issues 1 & 2 Lisa Bennett

LITERARY STUDIES
Terry Collits: Postcolonial Conrad Roger Osborne
Ann-Marie Priest: Great Writers, Great Loves Rachel Buchanan

INDIGENOUS STUDIES
Sylvie Poirier: A World of Relationships Tim Rowse
Jane Lydon: Eye Contact Helen Ennis
Tim Rowse: Contesting Assimilation Lee Corbett

TRAVEL
Christopher Kremmer: Inhaling the Mahatma Peter Mares
Richard White: On Holidays AND Lonely Planet: The Cities Book Dennis Altman

FICTION
Kate Morton: The Shifting Fog Lorien Kaye
Deborah Robertson: Careless AND Karen Sparnon: Madonna of the Eucalypts Emily Ballou
Jem Poster: Rifling Paradise Nick Drayson

CHILDREN'S
The Art of Communication: Stephanie Owen Reeder

IN BRIEF
Glen St John Barclay and Caroline Turner: Humanities Research Centre Jay Thompson
Mark Finnane: The Difficulties of My Position Laurie Hergenhan
Janet Mackenzie (ed.): At the Typeface Aviva Tuffield
Debra Dean: The Madonnas of Leningrad Annie Condon
Peter Bensley: On a Wing and a Prayer Irene Drumm
Sandy McCutcheon: Black Widow Carol Middleton


  

Current reviews

Neal Blewett
We are all little Johnnies now: on The Longest Decade and The Howard Factor
'[Paul] Kelly recently advised a left-leaning audience to put aside their morality in assessing the Howard government. "Morality, ay, there's the rub".' Read full text

Glynn Davis
When research is not enough:
on Our Underachieving Colleges
'Bok is worried by a pervasive conservatism in higher education, specifically the refusal by professors to confront evidence about poor teaching ... This is brave territory for Bok to explore.' Read full text.

Jonathan Pearlman
'A beautiful shoah'
''Israel is not merely a Jewish state, but a faultline on an enduring ideological debate that crosses the usual divide between left and right. Put crudely, the battle is between those who believe that power can be put to good use and those who believe that any imbalances of power - such as between the rulers and the ruled or strong states and weak - can (and must) be overcome.' Read full text

Gideon Haigh
The fissured mogul: on The History of the Times: The Murdoch Years
'For such a big deal, "the imprimatur of The Times" has not always been wisely bestowed. The newspaper cosied up to the Confederacy during the American Civil War; it was approving of Hitler in the 1930s, and of Stalin in the 1940s. But never in the paper’s history has that imprimatur traded at an underestimate.' Read full text

Bridget Griffen-Foley
MEDIA: Ming's Legacy
'Australian historians admire Robert Menzies. Pardon? Aren't historians, like the rest of the Australian academy, left-wing propagandists? Regardless of how historians view Menzies' attitude to the monarchy, appeasement, the middle class and the Communist party, they have reached a consensus on one point: Menzies played a significant role in the consolidation and expansion of Australia's university sector.' Read full text

POETRY

Read Kate Middleton's Whistler's Boatman, as featured in this issue.

CHILDREN'S

Stephanie Owen-Reeder
Picture Book Survey:
The Art of Communication
'Like all books, picture books are a vehicle of communication, narrative, information and emotions. Because of the adaptability of the picture-book genre, which communicates using both verbal and visual language systems, it is sometimes possible for authors and illustrators to challenge the underlying precepts of the role of language in the communication process.' Read full text
 

 

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