Insight into the latest publications by our resident team of book reviewers.
THE KILLING SEASON: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66 by Geoffrey B. Robinson Princeton University Press, New Jersey Paperback: 456 pages Price: AUD$42.99 Reviewed by Paul Monk Confronted, after 1945 (and even more from 1949–50) with a communist bloc in which large-scale terror and totalitarian rule had repeatedly been imposed on hundreds of millions…
PHILOSOPHIES AT WAR by Fulton J. Sheen Charles Scribner’s Sons, NY, 1943 Available to read online here What strikes this reader of Fulton Sheen’s 1943 book, Philosophies at War, is its agreement with B.A. Santamaria’s Philosophies in Collision, which had its origins in a paper B.A. gave in 1973. (This paper is now available again…
THE 20-YEAR PERSECUTION OF FALUN GONG IN CHINA by the Minghui Report Minghui Publishing Center Hardcover: 437 pages Price: AUD$95 (Free delivery if order is from NSW, Victoria or Queensland) Available from the Epoch Media Group, c/o Tianti Books, 49A Treacy Street, Hurstville, NSW 2220 T: (02) 8988 5600, email: [email protected] or Melbourne Epoch Media…
CHINA’S GREAT WALL OF DEBT: Shadow Banks, Ghost Cities, Massive Loans and the End of the Chinese Miracle by Dinny McMahon Little Brown Book Group, London Paperback: 352 pages Price: AUD$32.99 Reviewed by David James It is all getting quite exhausting. Just as we were getting used to hating Russia, despite zero proof of Vladimir…
SURVIVING THE FUTURE: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy by David Fleming and Shaun Chamberlin Chelsea Green Publishing, Hartford, Vermont Paperback: 304 pages Price: AUD$30.95 Reviewed by Brian Coman “Examine everything,” writes St Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians, “hold on to that which is true.” Now, of…
MY UNCLE FULTON SHEEN by Joan Sheen Cunningham and Janel Rodriguez Ignatius Press, San Francisco Paperback: 144 pages Price: AUD$33.95 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel One of the most prominent churchmen in the 20th century was Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895–1979). Author of numerous books, and presenter of the renowned Life is Worth Living series on…
LIBERTY IN THE THINGS OF GOD: The Christian Origins of Religious Freedom by Robert Louis Wilken Yale UP, New Haven, Connecticut Hardcover: 248 pages Price: AUD$46.99 Reviewed by Michael Quinlan Professor Robert Louis Wilken is chairman of the board of the Institute on Religion and Public Life, the publisher of First Things magazine. He is…
TEN ROGUES: The Unlikely Story of Convict Schemers, a Stolen Brig and an Escape from Van Diemen’s Land to Chile by Peter Grose Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest Paperback: 222 pages Price: AUD$29.99 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel One of the most picturesque, yet eerily remote, locations in Australia is the west-coast region of Tasmania.…
THE GREAT KOALA SCAM: Green Propaganda, Junk Science, Government Waste and Cruelty to Animals by Vic Jurskis Connor Court, Cleveland, Qld. Paperback: 138 pages Price: AUD$29.95 Reviewed by Brian Coman Let me begin with a declaration of non-objectivity! Any retired scientist who quotes Miguel Cervantes on the first page of his work is almost certainly…
GRANT by Ron Chernow Apollo, London Paperback: 1,104 pages Price: AUD$27.99 Reviewed by Jeffry Babb Some books require such a commitment of time and attention – and also on account of their sheer length – that they become life changing. Who could not read Tolstoy’s War and Peace without absorbing the grandeur of the Russian…
CAPITAL AND IDEOLOGY by Thomas Piketty Belknap Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts Hardcover: 1,104 pages Price: AUD$79.99 Reviewed by Colin Teese Back in 2014, French academic economist Thomas Piketty published Capital in the Twenty-First Century. His aim was to codify what he called the “grand dynamics” that drove the accumulation and distribution of capital. He brought to…
THE SMALLEST MINORITY: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics by Kevin D. Williamson Gateway Editions, Washington DC Hardcover: 256 pages Price: AUD$53.99 Reviewed by David James Kevin D. Williamson’s book, The Smallest Minority, is an entirely reasonable critique of democracy’s shortcomings that just as entirely misses the point. He criticises the mob rule…
WHY READ HANNAH ARENDT NOW? by Richard J. Bernstein Polity Publisher, Cambridge Paperback: 120 pages Price: AUD$21.95 LOVE AND SAINT AUGUSTINE by Hannah Arendt University of Chicago Press, Chicago Paperback: 254 pages Price: AUD$32.99 Reviewed by Paul Gray Hannah Arendt is one of the most important thinkers of the late 20th century and, in…
NERVOUS STATES: How Feeling Took Over the World by William Davies Vintage, LondonPaperback: 320 pages Price: AUD$24.99 Reviewed by David Daintree The more complicated the world becomes, the more books are written to help us understand and navigate it. So numerous and so diverse are books of this kind that a pessimist might suspect they…
THE NEW ART OF WAR: China’s Deep Strategy inside the United States by William J. Holstein Brick Tower Press, NY Paperback: 232 pages Price: AUD$32.95 Reviewed by Jeffry Babb Sun Tsu (544 BC–496 BC) was a master strategist whose classic book, The Art of War, has been the essential manual for Chinese soldiers and businessmen…
THE ADJUNCT UNDERCLASS: How America’s Colleges Betrayed Their Faculty, Their Students and Their Mission by Herb Childress University of Chicago Press, Chicago Hardcover: 208 pages Price: AUD$49.99 Reviewed by Dr Augusto Zimmermann Herb Childress currently works as a partner at an ethnography-based consulting firm in the United States.…
FATHER AUGUSTUS TOLTON: The Slave Who Became the First African-American Priest by Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers Sophia Institute Press, New Hampshire Paperback: 176 pages Price: AUD$49.99 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel One of the most inspirational persons in the history of the United States Church in the 19th century is Servant of God Rev Augustus (Augustine)…
MAOISM: A Global History by Julia Lovell Vintage, London Paperback: 448 pages Price: AUD$35 Reviewed by Bill James Those over a certain age will remember the reign of Mao back in the 1960s and ’70s. His icon was taped to the walls of student digs, from where the Great Helmsman could preside over the long…
ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND ST THOMAS AQUINAS: On Justice in the Distribution and Exchange of Wealth by Donald Boland En Route Books and Media, St Louis Paperback: 214 pages Price: AUD$34.95 Reviewed by Paul Collits Don Boland is a modern day peeping Thomist (apologies to the late Ralph McInerney),…
DOUBLE TROUBLE: The Amazing True Story of the After Dark Bandit by Geoff Wilkinson and Ross Brundrett Wilkinson Publishing, Melbourne Paperback: 288 pages Price: AUD$29.99 Reviewed by Jeffry Babb Long ago I had a friend named Dave Norgaard. He was “pictorial editor” for the Daily News in Perth.…
GALILEO REVISITED: The Galileo Affair in Context by Dom Paschal Scotti Ignatius Press, San Francisco Paperback: 276 pages Price: AUD$37.95 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel Those who wish to argue that Christianity, Roman Catholicism in particular, is opposed to science invariably cite the condemnation of Galileo. In the…
A WORLD MADE NEW: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Mary Ann Glendon Random House, New York Paperback: 342 pages Price: AUD$36 Reviewed by Madeleine van der Linden The creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a momentous achievement, as nations…
ANGELS, INCENSE AND REVOLUTION: Catholic Schooldays of the 1960s by Wanda Skowronska (Foreword by Jim Franklin) Connor Court, Redland Bay Paperback: 224 pages Price: AUD$29.95 Reviewed by Michael Gilchrist As the old saying goes, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. However, those in control of Catholic religious education forgot that wise maxim in the…
HOW FEAR WORKS: Culture of Fear in the Twenty-First Century by Frank Furedi Bloomsbury Continuum, Sydney Hardcover: 320 pages Price: AUD$39.99 Reviewed by Margaret Somerville I currently teach bioethics to medical students and in the past have also taught law students. A theme of the first class I…
THE LITTLE GREY BOOK ON SEX AND TRANSGENDER by Patrick J. Byrne Wilkinson Publishing, Melbourne Paperback: 95 pages Price: AUD$19.99 Reviewed by Terri M. Kelleher This second book on transgender by Patrick J. Byrne is an excellent introduction to his more detailed treatment of the subject in his…
UNDER FIRE IN SOUTH AFRICA by Schalk Visagie Christian Liberty Books, Cape Town Paperback: 318 pages Price: AUD$41.95 Reviewed by John Elsegood In the Book of Ephesians, we are told about having to wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers of darkness.…
AN UNSOUND INVESTMENT: The Memoirs of Sir Peter Lawler by Peter Lawler Privately published, Canberra Hardcover; three volumes in slipcase: 933 pages Price: AUD$170 Reviewed by John Barich An Unsound Investment is the title of the memoir of one of the Australian Family Association’s national patrons, Sir Peter…
SAINTS AND SINNERS IN THE CRISTERO WAR: Stories of Martyrdom from Mexico by Mons James T. Murphy Ignatius Press, San Francisco Paperback: 264 pages Price: AUD$35.95 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel As a teenager, I was unable to put down Graham Greene’s novel, The Power and the Glory, after my school chaplain spoke at length…
KING OF THE AIR: The Turbulent Life of Charles Kingsford Smith by Ann Blainey Black Inc., Carlton Hardcover: 384 pages Price: AUD$49.99 Reviewed by Jeffry Babb This biography is a story and Ann Blainey is a fine storyteller. Charles Kingsford Smith was a hero of the pioneering days of aviation, between the wars. He made…
BY VIOLENCE UNAVENGED: In the Hearts of Kings, volume 1 by Annette Young Distant Prospect Publishing, Lorn, NSW Hardcover/Paperback: 474 pages Price: Hardcover: AUD$49.95; Paperback: AUD$34.95 Available also as an ebook for Kindle, Kobo and Google Play Preorder now from any bookseller, or from the author at annetteyoung.net (signed to Australian addresses) Reviewed by John…
THE KILLING OF LOUISA by Janet Lee University of Queensland Press, St Lucia Paperback: 272 pages Price: AUD$29.95 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel One of the more unusual criminal cases in Australian history is that of Louisa Collins, who in 1889 was the last woman hanged in New…
MUSIC AS AN ART by Roger Scruton Bloomsbury Continuum, Sydney Hardcover: 272 pages Price: AUD$50 Reviewed by David James Writing about music is often an unrewarding task. It is an art form that leaves the philosopher or critic either confined to talking about technicalities, or in generalities that…
HOW POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS DESTROYING EDUCATION AND YOUR CHILD’S FUTURE by Kevin Donnelly Wilkinson Publishing, Melbourne Paperback: 240 pages Price: AUD$29.99 Reviewed by Christopher Murray Readers who follow the national conversation about education will be very familiar with Kevin Donnelly. He has published several books, writes often for daily newspapers, appears on television and was…
THE RED RUGS OF TARSUS: A Woman’s Record of the Armenian Massacre of 1909 by Helen Davenport Gibbons Connor Court, Redland Bay, 2016 (first published in 1917; this edition with a new introduction and annotations) Paperback: 130 pages Price: AUD$19.95 Reviewed by Edward Fenton The world heard of the “liberation” of Aleppo a few years…
AUSTRALIA’S FIRST SPIES: The Remarkable Story of Australia’s Intelligence Operations, 1901–1945 by John Fahey Allen and Unwin, SydneyPaperback: 456 pagesPrice: AUD$34.99 Reviewed by Chris Rule John Fahey’s book is a history of the birth and early development of what have become Australia’s intelligence community and its international connections. It details the organisations involved, operations, sources…
SAINTS VS. SCOUNDRELS: Debating Life’s Greatest Questions by Benjamin Wiker EWTN Publishing, Irondale, Alabama Paperback: 288 pages Price: AUD$39.95 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel Many people have converted to Catholicism because they have recognised that the Catholic Church is able to offer a meaningful and cogent response to…
STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput Henry Hold and Company, New York Hardcover: 288 pages Price: AUD$39.99 Reviewed by Conor Sweeney Archbishop Charles J. Chaput is a rare breed among his class: a serious bishop. By this I mean he is a bishop…
PIONEER PRIESTS AND MAKESHIFT ALTARS: A History of Catholicism in the Thirteen Colonies by Fr Charles P. Connor EWTN Publishing, Irondale, Alabama Paperback: 272 pages Price: AUD$39.95 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel Central to the foundation story of the United States of America are the voyage of the Mayflower in 1620, and the subsequent establishment of…
THE BENEDICT OPTION: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher Sentinel, New York Paperback: 262 pages Price: AUD$38.99 Reviewed by David Daintree Once in a while Providence throws up a splendid synchronicity of famous births. The second-last decade of the fifth century (480–490 AD) was one such special time. What other…
THE RUSSIA HOAX: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump by Gregg Jarrett Broadside (HarperCollins, New York Hardcover: 352 pages Price: AUD$52.99 Reviewed by Hal G.P. Colebatch This book is an indispensible guide through the toxic swamp that much of the political establishment of Washington, DC, has become. One reads it…
THE SEXUAL STATE: How Elite Ideologies Are Destroying Lives and Why the Church Was Right All Along by Jennifer Roback Morse TAN Books, Charlotte, NC Hardcover: 420 pages Price: AUD$55.95 Reviewed by Michael Quinlan Dr Jennifer Roback Morse has a PhD in economics and is the founder of the not-for-profit Ruth Institute. The Sexual State…
VIETNAM: An Epic Tragedy, 1945–75 by Max Hastings HarperCollins, London Paperback: 752 pages Price: AUD$34.99 Reviewed by Bill James Back in the late 1960s, I demonstrated against the Vietnam War as part of the “Neither Washington nor Hanoi” contingent. While realising that such an ideal outcome was unlikely, I had decided that the tragic imposition…
THE END OF LOYALTY: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America by Rick Wartzman Public Affairs, New York Hardcover: 432 pages Price: AUD$42.99 Reviewed by Colin Teese The author could not have chosen a better title for what he wanted to illustrate: whereas American big business was once able and willing to provide…
As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colapinto, Harper Collins, Sydney Twins are invaluable to scientists as objects of study, because no two people are genetically closer than identical twins. Had Bruce and Brian Reimer not been identical twins, it is possible that Dr John Money would not…
A HIGHER FORM OF KILLING: Six Weeks in World War I that Forever Changed the Nature of Warfare by Diana Preston Bloomsbury Press, Sydney Hardcover: 288 pages Price: AUD$38.40 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel Mention the horrors of World War I, and most people identify trench warfare, and the sheer number of casualties. Author Diana…
SCIENCE WAS BORN OF CHRISTIANITY: The Teaching of Fr Stanley L. Jaki by Stacy Trasancos Habitation of Chimham Publishing, Titusville, Florida Paperback: 208 pages Price: AUD$35.99 Reviewed by John Long Twenty-six years ago, a Benedictine priest named Stanley Jaki visited the NCC and gave a talk on the relationship between science and the Christian faith.…
THE GOOD MASTER by Kate Seredy (Available at most good bookstores) This book, first published in 1937, and once regarded as a classic, was read to me as a child. I had forgotten it but rediscovered it, and saw those two names, “Kate” and “Jancsi”, with a feeling of meeting and recognising old friends. Having…
CATHOLICS CONFRONTING HITLER: The Catholic Church and the Nazis by Peter Bartley Ignatius Press, San Francisco Paperback: 296 pages Price: AUD$35.95 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel When the reviewer studied Modern History at school, the relationship between the Nazis and the Church was glossed over in the space of a few minutes in one lesson.…
A CAPTAIN’S PORTRAIT: Witold Pilecki, Martyr for Truth by Adam J. Koch Freedom Publishing Books, Scoresby Hardcover: 454 pages Price: AUD$44.95 Reviewed by Dr Keith Suter Witold Pilecki was one of the most remarkable Polish people of World War II. In 1940, with Poland overrun by Germans, the Catholic Pilecki volunteered to go into…
SEX MATTERS: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love and Common Sense by Mona Charen Crown Publishing, New York Hardcover: 320 pages Price: AUD$49.99 Reviewed by Madeleine van der Linden Feminism has been a shaping ideology of Western culture for over 60 years, and its effects are being felt. The current move towards aggressive…
GARDASIL: Fast-Tracked and Flawed by Helen Lobato Spinifex Press, North Geelong Paperback: 138 pages Price: AUD$19.95 Reviewed by Jacqueline Gwynne The book Gardasil: Fast Tracked and Flawed by Helen Lobato was launched earlier this year by Spinifex Press. Lobato comes from a background in critical-care nursing and presented a radio program on health at a…
FAMILY CYCLES: Strength, Decline and Renewal in American Domestic Life, 1630–2000 by Allan C. Carlson Transaction, Piscatawy, New Jersey Paperback: 182 pages Price: AUD$58.95 Reviewed by Peter Westmore Allan Carlson, arguably the United States’ foremost historian and sociologist of the family, wrote this important book to document historical cycles of strength and weakness in the…
THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION: History for a Techno-Human Future by Judith Bessant Taylor & Francis, London Hardcover: 250 pages Price: AUD$242 Reviewed by Colin Teese Judith Bessant, the author of The Great Transformation, Professor at RMIT University, Melbourne, and Adjunct Professor at the School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, has an impressive record of…
WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING? John Spooner’s Guide to the 21st Century by John Spooner Australian Scholarly, North Melbourne Paperback: 258 pages Price: AUD$65 Reviewed by Peter Kelleher John Spooner has produced some of the sharpest as well as some of the most confounding political cartoons you…
PROSTITUTION NARRATIVES: Stories of Survival in the Sex Trade by Caroline Norma and Melinda Tankard Reist (eds) Spinifex Press, North Geelong Paperback: 200 pages Price: AUD$29.95 Reviewed by Gabrielle Walsh Prostitution Narratives offers sincere, personal stories of women who are survivors of prostitution. The individual testimonies are based…
THE GOSPEL IN GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS: Selections from His Poems, Letters, Journals and Spiritual Writings Edited by Margaret Ellsberg Plough Publishing House, Elsmere Paperback: 255 pages Price: AUD$18 Reviewed by Hal G.P. Colebatch I was introduced to Gerard Manley Hopkins far too early. His work was set as a text at my school, and I,…
THE HOLOCAUST: A New History by Laurence Rees Viking/Penguin, London Hardcover: 512 pages Price: AUD$55 Reviewed by Bill James The Holocaust, the murder by Nazi Germany of six million Jews between 1933 and 1945, is history’s most intensively studied event. Rees describes it as “the most infamous crime in the history of the…
PAPER GENDERS: Pulling the mask off the Transgender Phenomenon Make Waves Publishing, Carlsbad, California Paperback: 130 pages Price: AUD $29.95 GENDER, LIES AND SUICIDE: A Whistleblower Speaks Out Make Waves Publishing, Carlsbad, California Paperback: 152 pages Price: AUD $29.95 by Walt Heyer …
KYOTO SAKURA TANKA by Andrew Lansdown Rhiza Press, Capalaba, Queensland Hardcover: 144 pages Price: AUD $25.95 Reviewed by Brian Peachey Kyoto Sakura Tanka is Andrew Lansdown’s 15th published collection of poetry and his first published collection of photography. It is an elegant publication, in a beautifully crafted hardcover edition, which makes it an…
THE STRUGGLE FOR SEA POWER: A Naval History of American Independence by Sam Willis Atlantic Books, London Hardcover: 608 pages Price: AUD $70 Reviewed by Jeffry Babb “Those who go down to the sea in ships, Who do business on great waters, They see the works of the Lord, And His wonders in…
The first comments former South Vietnam army colonel Vo Dai Ton uttered at a meeting in Perth was to praise National Civic Council founder, Bob Santamaria. Seeing Santamaria’s photo on the wall of the National Civic Council offices in Belmont, Western Australia, the retired Colonel, who now lives in Sydney, said: “His name is still…
SECONDHAND TIME: The last of the Soviets, An Oral History by Svetlana AlexievichTranslated from the Russian by Bela Shayevich Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2016 Paperback: 520 pagesPrice: AUD$37.95 Reviewed by Jeffry Babb Russia has a great tradition of literary creation. Russians are said to read more books than any other nation. Writers are the…
COUNTERSTRIKE by Hal Colebatch Acashic Intellectual Capital, 2011 Subiaco East Paperback: 245 pages Price: AUD$30 Reviewed by Jeffry Babb Hal G.P. Colebatch has the rare talent of being able to carry a storyline while developing complex ideas that enhance, rather than obscure,…
THE ROMANTIC ATTACK ON MODERN SCIENCE IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA: And Other Essays by Roger Sworder Angelico Press (Sophia Perennis). Paperback: 172 pages ISBN: 978-1621381471Price: AUD$28.99 Reviewed by Brian Coman From a perusal of the title of this new book by Roger Sworder, we may well ask why such a seemingly arcane…
FROM TRADITION AND AWAY FROM TRADITION: Poems, 2001–2014 by Andrew Huntley (Bendigo, Extra Castra Publications) Hardcover: 60 pages ISBN: 9780646926049Price: AUD$29.95 Reviewed by Jarred Vehlen For generations men have spoken about the Western tradition, or all that makes up European culture; that which is handed down from one generation to the next,…
IRON CURTAIN: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 by Anne Applebaum (London: Allen Lane/Penguin) Hardcover: 614 pages ISBN: 9780713998689 RRP: AUD$49.95 Reviewed by Bill James When I reviewed Anne Applebaum’s Gulag: A History a decade ago (News Weekly, September 6, 2003), I commented that it was refreshing to come across a baby-boomer journalist…
A Christian voice in public life GOD AND CAESAR: Selected Essays on Religion, Politics, & Societyby Cardinal George Pell(Victoria: Connor Court)Paperback: 193 pagesRec. price: $29.95 One of the most persistent aims of 20th-century secularism, taken from the French Enlightenment, was first to marginalise then eliminate religion from political life in the Western world. It is…