BEN SCHNEIDERS Hard Labour: Wage theft in the age of inequality. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck.
Ben Scheiders examines wage theft and challenges the notion that Australia is a fair-minded society. Ben Schneiders is an investigative reporter with The Age. Since 2015 he has written hundreds of articles on wage theft with colleague Royce Millar. His object in this...
PETER VAN ONSELEN and WAYNE ERRINGTON Victory: The inside story of Labor’s return to power. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
This expert analysis of the 2022 federal election examines Labor’s rebuilding process, the six-week campaign, and the challenges ahead. Victory was released for sale just over four months after election day, but it would be foolish to categorise it as a ‘quickie’. It...
DAVID ENRICH Servants of the Damned: Giant law firms and the corruption of justice. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
David Enrich delivers a cautionary tale of the capture of US courts by vested interests. The powerful have always needed handmaidens to tend to their needs. They employ small armies of professionals – lawyers, accountants, scientists, engineers, technical and cyber...
ANNA SPARGO-RYAN A Kind of Magic. Reviewed by Virginia Muzik
Anna Spargo-Ryan’s memoir melds a vivid account of lifelong mental illness with thorough research. Early on in A Kind of Magic, Anna Spargo-Ryan tries to establish where her mental illness story begins, looking – not surprisingly – to her family. Did she inherit...
CAMERON K. MURRAY and PAUL FRIJTERS Rigged. Reviewed by Susan Francis
Cameron K. Murray and Paul Frijters reveal how Australia is run by the ‘Game of Mates’, the cosy relationships at the centre of power. Given current discussions about a federal ICAC, and a continuing avalanche of corruption allegations against former members of the...
PETER GODFREY-SMITH Metazoa: Animal minds and the birth of consciousness. Reviewed by Venkat Ramanan
Do animals have consciousness? And if so, to what degree? Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith investigates in Metzoa. A scene in André Brink’s anti-apartheid novel An Act of Terror begins with a team of labourers processing recently caught crayfish. They take hold of each...
ELAINE PEARSON Chasing Wrongs and Rights. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Elaine Pearson gives an insider’s account of fighting for human rights around the world. The concept of ‘human rights’ is relatively new, becoming embodied in international law in response to atrocities perpetuated during World War II. The preamble to the...
EDDIE BETTS The Boy From Boomerang Crescent. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Footy star Eddie Betts recounts the highs and lows of his career and what it means to be a Blackfulla. There is a genre of sports writing known as the ‘Glory Book’, where a former player waxes lyrical about wonderful moments he experienced on the playing field, either...
PETER BEILHARZ and SIAN SUPSKI (eds) The Work of History: Writing for Stuart Macintyre. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
These essays are a tribute to one of Australia’s most significant historians, Stuart Macintyre. Stuart Forbes Macintyre has the distinction of being Australia’s leading historian of the last half century. Born in Melbourne in April 1947, educated at Scotch...
DENNIS ALTMAN God Save the Queen: The strange persistence of monarchies. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
Dennis Altman’s new book isn’t a hatchet job on the Queen but a captivating and reasoned analysis of monarchical systems around the world. Distinguished professorial fellow Dennis Altman is quick to declare his republican sympathies in his introduction, describing...
DBC PIERRE Big Snake Little Snake: An inquiry into risk. Reviewed by Ann Skea
The Booker-winning author of Vernon God Little turns his attention to philosophy, mathematics, and the nature of cause and effect. DBC Pierre was in Trinidad to make a short commercial film with a parrot. Living in a house on a hill, beside which ‘someone had thought...
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