On Mother by Sarah Ferguson

$14.99 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society

A mother's love over decades and across continents. The sudden death of Sarah's mother reveals their relationship with poignant clarity and shows her the individual who existed beyond motherhood. A reflection on mothers and daughters.

Hell Ship by Michael Veitch

$32.99 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society

For more than a century and a half, a grim tale has passed down through Michael Veitch's family: the story of the Ticonderoga, a clipper ship that sailed from Liverpool in August 1852, crammed with poor but hopeful emigrants - mostly Scottish victims of the Clearances and the potato famine. A better lif e, they believed, awaited them in Australia. Three months later, a ghost ship crept into Port Phillip Bay flying the dreaded yellow flag of contagion. On her horrific three-month voyage, deadly typhus had erupted, killing a quarter of Ticonderoga's passengers and leaving many more desperately ill. Sharks, it was said, had followed her passage as the victims were buried at sea. Panic struck Melbourne. Forbidden to dock at the gold-boom town, the ship was directed to a lonely beach on the far tip of the Mornington Peninsula, a place now called Ticonderoga Bay. James William Henry Veitch was the ship's assistant surgeon, on his first appointment at sea. Among the volunteers who helped him tend to the sick and dying was a young woman from the island of Mull, Annie Morrison. What happened between them on that terrible voyage is a testament to human resilience, and to love. Michael Veitch is their great-great-grandson, and Hell Ship is his brilliantly researched narrative of one of the biggest stories of its day, now all but forgotten. Broader than his own family's story, it brings to life the hardships and horrors endured by those who came by sea to seek a new life in Australia. ...Show more

Saga Land: the Island Stories at the Edge of the World by Richard Fidler; Kari Gislason

$29.99 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society

A new friendship. An unforgettable journey. A beautiful and bloody history.This is Iceland as you've never read it before ...Broadcaster Richard Fidler and author Kári Gíslason are good friends. They share a deep attachment to the sagas of Iceland - the true stories of the first Viking fam ilies who settled on that remote island in the Middle Ages.These are tales of blood feuds, of dangerous women, and people who are compelled to kill the ones they love the most. The sagas are among the greatest stories ever written, but the identity of their authors is largely unknown.Together, Richard and Kári travel across Iceland, to the places where the sagas unfolded a thousand years ago. They cross fields, streams and fjords to immerse themselves in the folklore of this fiercely beautiful island. And there is another mission: to resolve a longstanding family mystery - a gift from Kari's Icelandic father that might connect him to the greatest of the saga authors. ...Show more

Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner

$23.99 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society

Garner is a 2016 Windham-Campbell Prize recipient for her non-fiction writings. The judges praised Garner's work as 'intelligent, lucid and often disturbing.'   PRAISE FOR EVERYWHERE I LOOK'A captivating collection...No matter the topic, Garner is a charming and courageous writer whose distinctiv e voice exemplifies the range of what is possible in personal writing.'--Publishers Weekly   'Garner brings to the collection not only her tremendous powers of observation but a continued employment of those skills to force readers to confront unpleasant truths. The graceful prose with which she delivers her insights will challenge readers to look at what is happening around them.'--Library Journal (STARRED REVIEW)   'Like strolling around in an idiosyncratic, surprising, and informative museum.'--Kirkus   'Garner is a natural storyteller: her unillusioned eye makes her clarity compulsive.'--New Yorker   'Compulsively readable essays.'--Observer   'Writes with the humor and precision of Joy Williams, the warmth and ferocity of Elena Ferrante, and the investigative rigor of Janet Malcolm.'--John Freeman, LitHub   'A thoughtful dissection of the emotional anatomy of the everyday'.--Financial Times UK]   'This is Garner in expansive mood writing gracefully about everything from her family to ballet to the dawn service.'--The Spectator'Garner is a wonderful appreciator: she invites us into the work under review by leading us along the path of discovery she has followed.'--Open Letters Monthly   'Garner's prose is so very pleasant to read - dry, relaxed sentences that calmly reach out towards loveliness... Her] willingness to look at and truly see the failures of human behavior, in herself no less than in others, that lends her work its power.'--Guardian   'A rich, beautiful book by a poet of the everyday, a sheer master of prose.'--Australian   'A book with a big scope, both in terms of the subjects covered and of the stylistic approaches used to discuss them--a great reminder of the range of the essay as form.'--Signature   'There's not a word wasted or out of place. Garner observes, intuits, shares and cares about the lives she writes about like no-one else. Readers will laugh, cry, squirm and gasp and wonder. It's Garner's unique gift as a writer, and it's beautifully realized in Everywhere I Look.'--Books + Publishing   Spanning fifteen years of work, Everywhere I Look is a book full of intuition, insight and humor. It takes us from backstage at the ballet to the trial of a woman for the murder of her newborn baby. It moves effortlessly from the significance of moving house to the pleasure of re-reading Pride and Prejudice. Helen Garner is the author of numerous books of fiction and nonfiction. Her novel The Spare Room was published to critical acclaim in 2010. Her work of true crime This House of Grief received international praise.   PRAISE FOR This House of Grief' Garner] doesn't merely listen. She watches, imagines, second-guesses, empathizes, agonizes. Her voice--intimate yet sharp, wry yet urgent--inspires trust.'--Atlantic 'She writes with a profound understanding of human vulnerability, and of the subtle workings of love, memory and remorse.'--Economist 'Helen Garner is an invaluable guide into harrowing territory and offers powerful and unforgettable insights.'--Kate Atkinson   THIS HOUSE OF GRIEF won the Honorable Mention in the INDIEFAB 2015 Book of the Year Awards, True Crime category ...Show more

Trigger Warnings, Political Correctness and the Rise of the Right by Jeff Sparrow

$29.99 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society

The man lives, quite literally, in a building serviced by a golden elevator. Somehow, he presented himself as the scourge of the elites. For decades, he built a persona based on the most conspicuous consumption and the crassest of excess - and then he won the presidency on an antiestablishment ticket. T he unlikely rise of Donald J Trump exemplifies the political paradox of the twenty-first century. In this new Gilded Age, the contrast between the haves and the have-nots could not be starker. The world's eight richest billionaires control as much wealth as the poorest half of the planet - a disparity of wealth and political power unknown in any previous period. Yet not only have progressives failed to make gains in circumstances that should, on paper, favour egalitarianism and social justice, the angry populism that's prospered explicitly targets ideas associated with the left - and none more so than so-called 'political correctness'. If Trump - and others like Trump - can turn hostility to PC into a winning slogan, how should the left respond? In the face of a vicious new bigotry, should progressives double-down on identity politics and gender theory? Must they abandon political correctness and everything associated with it to re-connect with a working class they've alienated? Or is there, perhaps, another way entirely? In Trigger Warnings, Jeff Sparrow excavates the development of a powerful new vocabulary against progressive causes. From the Days of Rage to Gamergate, from the New Left to the alt-right, he traces changing attitudes to democracy and trauma, symbolism and liberation, in an exhilarating history of ideas and movements. Challenging progressive and conservative orthodoxies alike, Trigger Warningsis a bracing polemic and a persuasive case for a new kind of politics. ...Show more

Australia Day by Stan Grant

$34.99 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society

Australia is poised at a critical moment of its history - but the time to act is now. Since publishing Talking to My Country in early 2016, Stan Grant has been crossing the country, talking to huge crowds everywhere about how racism is at the heart of our history and the Australian dream. But Stan knows this is not where the story ends. Everywhere he goes, he is asked the same questions: What can we do? How can we change the story? In Australia Day, Stan weaves a story of history, memoir, politics, struggle, survival and hope. Expressing a cautious optimism, he wants to show us that there is something we can all do, that there is a path forward, a way towards true reconciliation. For Stan, the creation of the Australian nation and the repression of the Indigenous people is integrally woven together. He has long been fascinated by the history of Jimmy Governor - also a Wiradjuri man - a man who was pushed to intolerable limits. Found guilty of murder, he was sentenced to hang, but the execution date was delayed by almost two months due to planned festivities to celebrate Australian Federation. Jimmy Governor was finally hanged at Darlinghurst gaol on 18 January 1901, just days after the official birth of the Australian nation. But Stan believes that with the recent establishment of the Referendum Council on constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the coming referendum, there is a huge opportunity facing Australia - an opportunity to fix past wrongs and set an optimistic path for the future and true reconciliation. It's the right thing to do. But we have to do it NOW. ...Show more

The Enduring Rip: A History of Queenscliffe by Barry Hill

$59.99 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society

You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World by Clare Wright

$49.99 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society | Series: Democracy Trilogy Ser.

For the ten years from 1902, when Australia's suffrage campaigners won the vote for white women, the world looked to this trailblazing young democracy for inspiration. Clare Wright's epic new history tells the story of that victory--and of Australia's role in the subsequent international struggle--thro ugh the eyes of five remarkable players: the redoubtable Vida Goldstein, the flamboyant Nellie Martel, indomitable Dora Montefiore, daring Muriel Matters, and artist Dora Meeson Coates, who painted the controversial Australian banner carried in the British suffragettes' monster marches of 1908 and 1911. Clare Wright's Stella Prize-winning The Forgotten Rebels of Eurekaretold one of Australia's foundation stories from a fresh new perspective. With You Daughters of Freedomshe brings to life a time when Australian democracy was the envy of the world--and the standard bearer for progress in a shining new century. Dr Clare Wrightis an award-winning historian and author who has worked as an academic, political speechwriter, historical consultant and radio and television broadcaster. Her most recent book, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, won the 2014 Stella Prize and the 2014 NIB Award for Literature and was shortlisted for many other awards. 'You Daughters of Freedombrings some forgotten women into the public discourse again, and we are all the richer for it.' Australian 'A celebration of leadership, inspiration, education and sheer individual cheek.' Sydney Morning Herald 'Clare Wright's You Daughters of Freedomis the uplifting story of a time Australia led the world in including women in our democratic project. It is a reminder of our proud legacy and a clarion call for who we can be.' Penny Wong 'The essential story of our greatest reformers, and one of our proudest achievements as a nation.' George Megalogenis 'A thrilling tale, superbly told, of brave Australian women with a passion for politics.' Judith Brett 'A rare achievement. Grand, bold and brilliantly written.' Mark McKenna 'This book will be brilliant.' Annabel Crabb, Chat 10 Looks 3 'One of the country's most accomplished story-tellers relates Australian women's fight for the vote in all of its passion, intensity and drama.' Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU 'You Daughters of Freedomrelates with sparkle and wit the largely untold story of the trailblazing women who not only dragged recalcitrant male leaders into the new century and won the right to vote but also were at the forefront of the struggle for women's enfranchisement internationally.' Inside Story 'Her story of Australian suffragists winning the vote and then running for parliament in 1903 should be required reading in this time of angst over the 'women problem' in the federal Liberal Party.' Weekend Australian Magazine ...Show more

True Stories: The Collected Short Non-Fiction by Helen Garner

$29.99 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society

Helen Garner visits the morgue, and goes cruising on a Russian ship. She sees women giving birth, and gets the sack for teaching her students about sex. She attends a school dance and a gun show. She writes about dreaming, about turning fifty, and the storm caused by The First Stone. Her stories on the murder of the two-year-old Daniel Valerio and Akon Guode, the mother who drove her children into a lake, won her two Walkley Awards.Garner looks at the world with a shrewd and sympathetic eye. Her non-fiction is always passionate and compelling. True Storiesis an extraordinary book, spanning forty years of work, by one of Australia?s great writers. ...Show more

The Football Solution: How Richmond's premiership can save Australia by George Megalogenis

$32.99 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society

A sport unlike any other in the world, football has always been Australia's bellwether. But at a time when politics is increasingly conducted like sports - full of one-eyed tribalism, captain's calls and policy dictated by the Newspoll scoreboard - football is the one institution that's more relevant th an ever. And it's Richmond that's out in front of the pack. Before it could win the 2017 premiership, the club had to change how it thought about good leadership. By weaving together the game's conflicted history, a sharp-eyed analysis of Richmond's off-field turbulence and his own love of the Tigers, Megalogenis reveals just how Richmond found a new way to win - and how Australia might do the same. 'Megalogenis has done it again, but with an unexpected twist.' HUGH MACKAY 'A public intellectual who barracks for Richmond argues that the Tigers' 2017 flag contains the seeds of our national resurgence. That's some footy argument . . .' MARTIN FLANAGAN 'Richmond are not yet ahead in the premiership wars, but through inspired leadership, they're streets ahead in the culture wars.' BARRIE CASSIDY 'Manages the incredible feat of igniting hope again for something called Australia. Whatever football code you follow, or even if you don't follow sport at all, I urge you to read this book. It's bracingly sane and beautifully told.' CHRISTOS TSIOLKAS ...Show more

Broken Song: T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession by Hill, Barry

$34.95 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society

The biography of T. G. H. Strehlow and Aboriginal possession. ‘A group of men… chanting with the enthusiasm that made them forget age & weakness & becoming young again in spirit…the rising and falling of the chant melody, like the breathing that gives us life – what an unforgettable scene!’ Thus wrote T. G.H. Strehlow in 1935, as he began his life work, Songs of Central Australia, acclaimed as one of the great books of world literature. Prize-winning poet and historian, Barry Hill, with exclusive access to Strehlow’s diaries, has written a major work about the troubled man who grew up on the Hermannsburg mission, became the first Patrol Officer of Central Australia, called himself the ‘last of the Aranda’, and compulsively collected secret-sacred objects and images. Broken Song straddles a century of Australian history, from the race wars on the frontier to the modern era of aboriginal land rights, tracking Strehlow’s creative and tragic life in translation. ...Show more

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

$35.00 AUD

Category: History, Politics and Society

The Number One Bestseller Sapiens showed us where we came from. Homo Deus looked to the future. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century explores the present. How can we protect ourselves from nuclear war, ecological cataclysms and technological disruptions? What can we do about the epidemic of fake news or the threat of terrorism? What should we teach our children? Yuval Noah Harari takes us on a thrilling journey through today?s most urgent issues. The golden thread running through his exhilarating new book is the challenge of maintaining our collective and individual focus in the face of constant and disorienting change. Are we still capable of understanding the world we have created? ...Show more