Insight into the latest publications by our resident team of book reviewers. Subscribers only.
Black and Pro-Life in America: The Incarceration and Exoneration of Walter B. Hoye II
BLACK AND PRO-LIFE IN AMERICA: The Incarceration and Exoneration of Walter B. Hoye II by Robert Artigo Ignatius Press, San Francisco Hardcover: 261 pages Price: AUD$38.99 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel
The Persecution of George Pell
by Keith Windschuttle Quadrant Books, BalmainPaperback: 408 pagesPrice: AUD$39.95 Reviewed by Peter Westmore THE LONG CAMPAIGN TO ‘STITCH UP’ CARDINAL PELL Meticulously researched, this book by Keith Windschuttle, the editor of Quadrant magazine, is an exposé of what the author describes as a multi-faceted campaign over several years to fit up Cardinal George Pell for…
Where is God in suffering?
WHERE IS GOD IN SUFFERING? by Brendan PurcellNew City Press, Hyde Park, NYPaperback: 157 pagesPrice: AUD$46.95 Reviewed by John Little Who does not suffer? And how do Christians accept and enter its deeper meaning and challenge with clarity, trust and hope, and not with passive, puzzled acceptance, denial, confusion, resentment – or even anger?…
Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
DEATHS OF DESPAIR AND THE FUTURE OF CAPITALISM by Anne Case and Angus Deaton Princeton University Press,Princeton, New JerseyHardcover: 312 pagesPrice: AUD$47.99 Reviewed by Brian Coman “Knowledge is of two kinds,” said Dr Johnson. “We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.” The book under review –…
Apocalypse Never: Why environmental alarmism hurts us all
APOCALYPSE NEVER: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All by Michael ShellenbergerHarperCollins, New YorkHardcover: 432 pagesPrice: AUD$59.99 Reviewed by Bill Kininmonth The emergence of Extinction Rebellion has lifted environmental alarmism to a new level of public confrontation. It is not, however, as if the movement has been able to call on a massive number of active…
A Good Life at Any Price: New Threats to Human Life in Our Times
A GOOD LIFE AT ANY PRICE: New Threats to Human Life in Our Times by Anita DowsingGracewing, HerefordshirePaperback: 224 pagesPrice: AUD$32.95 Reviewed by Joe Carolan This book gives a valuable overview of several major threats to human life in our times, including abortion, the destruction of embryos during IVF, assisted suicide/euthanasia and terrorism. Anita Dowsing,…
The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won
THE SECOND WORLD WARS: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won by Victor Davis HansonBasic Books, NYHardcover: 752 pagesPrice: AUD$60.75 Reviewed by Anthony Staunton The Second World Wars is by Victor Davis Hanson, an American classicist, historian, farmer and columnist on modern and ancient warfare. He has more than 20 books to his…
LIMITED BUT USEFUL INTRODUCTION TO COVID19
COVID 19: What You Need to Know about the Coronavirus and the Race for the Vaccineby Dr Michael MosleySimon and Schuster Australia, Cammeray, NSWPaperback: 144 pagesPrice: AUD$19.99 Reviewed by Peter Westmore Dr Michael Mosley, the author of this book – subtitled, “What You Need to Know about the Coronavirus and the Race for the Vaccine”…
‘THE GREATEST NEGRO CATHOLIC IN AMERICA’
DANIEL RUDD: Calling a Church to Justice by Gary B. AgeeLiturgical Press, Collegeville, MinnesotaPaperback: 113 pagesPrice: AUD$32.95 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel This short biography recounts the life and work of journalist and civil-rights advocate Daniel Rudd. It is published in the “People of God: Remarkable lives, heroes of faith” series produced by the Liturgical…
Radio Girl: Mrs Mac’s extraordinary service
RADIO GIRL: The Story of the Extraordinary Mrs Mac, Pioneering Engineer and Wartime Legend by David Dufty Allen & Unwin, East Melbourne Paperback: 312 pages Price: AUD$29.99 Reviewed by Chris Rule In his preface, David Dufty explains how he became interested in the “Radio Girl”, Florence Violet McKenzie, who was usually called Violet. Dufty was…
THE INDISPENSABLE PART INSTITUTIONS PLAY IN ALL OUR LIVES
A TIME TO BUILD: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream by Yuval Levin Basic Books, New York, Hardcover: 256 pages Price: AUD$42.40 Reviewed by Michael Quinlan Yuval Levin is the Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a senior editor…
Book Review – The 100 Days: Claiming Back NZ
100 DAYS: Claiming Back NZ by Amy Brooke Howling at the Moon Publishing, Kaukapakapa, New Zealand Paperback: 383 pages Price: NZ$29.95 Reviewed by Paul Collits Readers of News Weekly may be aware of Amy Brooke, Kiwi Happy Warrior. I hope so. Amy has appeared in News Weekly’s page as a poet and as a political…
THE RAG-TAG ELEMENTS THAT HELD OFF THE JAPANESE
THE BATTLES FOR KOKODA PLATEAU: Three Weeks of Hell Defending the Gateway to the Owen Stanleys by David W. Cameron Allen & Unwin, Melbourne Paperback: 432 pages Price: AUD$32.99 Reviewed by Jeffry Babb On July 21, 1942, a large Japanese reconnaissance force landed near Gona, on the northeast coast of Papua. The first objective, Cameron…
SURVIVAL AND BETRAYAL
THE DECEPTIONS by Suzanne Leal Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW Paperback: 277 pages Price: AUD$29.95 Reviewed by Michael E. Daniel Actions have consequences, many of which affect people for the rest of their long lives, and their descendants. This idea is central to Suzanne Leal’s latest novel, The Deceptions. A lawyer by profession, Leal…
THE MODERN WORLD ACCORDING TO GEORGE
ORWELL: A Man of Our Time by Richard Bradford Bloomsbury Caravel, London Hardcover: 234 pages Price: AUD$39.99 Reviewed by Bill James Some Christians try to base their behaviour on the principle, “What Would Jesus Do?” which sometimes extends to wearing a WWJD wristband. A secular version of this practice takes the form of “What Would…
THE BLACKEST OPERATION OF THEM ALL
THE KILLING SEASON: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66 by Geoffrey B. Robinson Princeton University Press, New JerseyPaperback: 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 of…
EBOOK: READ THIS
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 CCP’S WAR ON THE CHINESE PEOPLE
THE 20-YEAR PERSECUTION OF FALUN GONG IN CHINA by the Minghui Report Minghui Publishing CenterHardcover: 437 pagesPrice: 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 Group, 1/486 Station Street,…
ROTTING FROM WITHIN
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, LondonPaperback: 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 Putin’s…
GREEN BUT THOUGHTFUL
SURVIVING THE FUTURE: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy by David Fleming and Shaun Chamberlin Chelsea Green Publishing, Hartford, VermontPaperback: 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 course,…
FAMILY VIEW OF A VERY PUBLIC CHURCHMAN
MY UNCLE FULTON SHEEN by Joan Sheen Cunningham and Janel Rodriguez Ignatius Press, San FranciscoPaperback: 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 television,…
AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE TRUE ROOTS OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION
LIBERTY IN THE THINGS OF GOD: The Christian Origins of Religious Freedomby Robert Louis WilkenYale UP, New Haven, ConnecticutHardcover: 248 pagesPrice: AUD$46.99Reviewed 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 also the William R. Kenan…
TRUE ADVENTURE ISLANDS
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 NestPaperback: 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. A…
CALLING OUT FAKE SCIENCE
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 worth…
A TOUCH OF GRANDEUR
GRANT by Ron Chernow Apollo, LondonPaperback: 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 worldview?…
FOLLOW-UP TO A GROUND-BREAKING ECONOMIC HISTORY
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…
SKEWED VISION OF DEMOCRACY
THE SMALLEST MINORITY: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politicsby Kevin D. WilliamsonGateway Editions, Washington DCHardcover: 256 pagesPrice: 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 element in democracies, but…
KEEPING HANNAH ARENDT CURRENT AND ARENDT’S THESIS ON SAINT AUGUSTINE
WHY READ HANNAH ARENDT NOW?by Richard J. BernsteinPolity Publisher, CambridgePaperback: 120 pagesPrice: AUD$21.95 LOVE AND SAINT AUGUSTINEby Hannah ArendtUniversity of Chicago Press, ChicagoPaperback: 254 pagesPrice: AUD$32.99 Reviewed by Paul Gray Hannah Arendt is one of the most important thinkers of the late 20th century and, in this century, remains a key influence in con-temporary…
Useful but limited analysis of the breakdown of distinctions today
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…
BOOK REVIEW Model minority strikes back
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…
BOOK REVIEW All are losers in classroom warfare
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. Until 2013, he was dean of research…
BOOK REVIEW From slave to son of the Church
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)…
BOOK REVIEW The epic awfulness of Mao and his ‘isms’
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…
BOOK REVIEW In the market with the Angelic Doctor
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), a keeper of the faith and a…
BOOK REVIEW Public enemy No. 1 and his twin, No. 2
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. Dave had worked on The Sun News…
BOOK REVIEW The facts behind an undying distortion
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 popular mind, one need look no further…
BOOK REVIEW The story of the drafting of a great document
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 tried desperately to create peace and safety in…
BOOK REVIEW The days of calm before the storm
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…
BOOK REVIEW We have nothing to fear but fear itself
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 give them is that as members of…
BOOK REVIEW Roadmap to the law and transgenderism
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 first book, Transgender: One Shade of Grey.…
BOOK REVIEW Scenes from Dante’s Inferno
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. In fact, a South African police officer, Lieutenant…
BOOK REVIEW AFA patron’s long life of public service
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 Lawler. The memoir has been published posthumously…
BOOK REVIEW Catholic resistance in a forgotten war
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…
BOOK REVIEW Pioneering aviator’s flights and fancies
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…
BOOK REVIEW The experiences of Phoebe Raye
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…
BOOK REVIEW Novelised true crime a true thriller
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 South Wales. Louisa Collins has already been…
BOOK REVIEW Philosopher hits all the right notes
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 are too abstract to say much about…
BOOK REVIEW The left has our schools in bondage
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…
BOOK REVIEW Foretaste of a bloody century
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…
BOOK REVIEW Top secret history told from the inside
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…
BOOK REVIEW Author puts some great minds to work
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 the deep questions of life. However, throughout…
BOOK REVIEW What will be left us after the deluge?
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…
BOOK REVIEW Catholic Maryland and early tolerance
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…
BOOK REVIEW A template for living alongside the world
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…
BOOK REVIEW What draining the DC swamp turns up
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…
BOOK REVIEW The three-part attack on the home
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…
BOOK REVIEW Balanced account after the hysteria
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…
BOOK REVIEW Golden Age for workers and its end
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…
MEDICINE AND CULTURE Book captures tragedy of falling foul of a fanatic
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…
BOOK REVIEW The escalation of horror and atrocity
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…
BOOK REVIEW Why the West and nowhere else
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.…
CHILDREN’S CLASSIC A breath of fresh air and innocence
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…
BOOK REVIEW Comprehensively corrects the record
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.…
BOOK REVIEW Heroism from a crushed nation
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…
BOOK REVIEW A thoroughly modern movement
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…
BOOK REVIEW Uninformed consent
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…
BOOK REVEW The foundation of a successful society
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…
BOOK REVIEW An escape from futility and addiction
CHASING AFTER THE WIND by Kerryn Redpath The Mickie Dalton Foundation, Coffs Harbour Paperback: 286 pages Price: AUD$24.99 Reviewed by Jacqueline Gwynne The title of Kerryn Redpath’s book published last year describes the experience of a drug addict: chasing a feeling that is unattainable. Her story details the personal account of addiction that began as…
BOOK REVIEW A triumph of determination
THE WEAVER’S SON: Odyssey of an Australian Surgeon by Donald Hossack Melbourne UP, Carlton Paperback: 422 pages Price: AUD$29.99 Reviewed by Julia Patrick Donald Hossack’s story is both a personal memoir for his family and a social history of the time. His life in medicine is the backdrop for how he overcame adversity to follow…
BOOK REVIEW We are ill equipped for next big shift
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…
BOOK REVIEW The father of the Reformation
MARTIN LUTHER: Catholic Dissident by Peter Stanford Hodder & Stoughton, London Hardcover: 448 pages Price: AUD$45 Reviewed by Peter Westmore The five hundredth anniversary of the commencement of the Protestant Reformation took place in 2017. The occasion was marked by a series of events led by the Lutheran Church to commemorate the events which split…
BOOK REVIEW Cartoon hero puts it in black and white
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 will ever see. After a brief stint…
BOOK REVIEW FDR’s bad example from Depression era
AMERICAN DEFAULT: The Untold Story of FDR, the Supreme Court and the Battle over Gold by Sebastian Edwards Princeton UP, New Jersey Hardcover: 288 pages Price: AUD$64.99 Reviewed by Colin Teese Just when one might have imagined that the last word had been spoken about the Great Depression that hit the United States and then…
BOOK REVIEW A so-called industry with only a dark side
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 on the lived experiences of women who…
BOOK REVIEW Poems outshine dross of inept introduction
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,…
BOOK REVIEW The most infamous crime in history
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…
BOOK REVIEW Exposing the transgender agenda
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 Reviewed by Peter Kelleher Availability Walt Heyer’s books are only available…
BOOK REVIEW Poems exhibit delicate strength
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…
BOOK REVIEW How maritime England lost America
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…
VIETNAM MEMOIR Reminder of communist tyranny from a good man
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…
BOOK REVIEW An empire built on suffering
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…
BOOK REVIEW Putting postmodernism in its grave
COUNTERSTRIKE by Hal Colebatch Acashic Intellectual Capital, 2011 Subiaco East Paperback: 245 pagesPrice: 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 narrative. Counterstrike’s protagonist Harry is a part-time lecturer at a…
BOOK REVIEW Progress in the dock
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…
BOOK REVIEW Hope for the Land of the Southern Cross
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,…
BOOK REVIEW Postwar enslavement of half of Europe
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…
GOD AND CAESAR: Selected Essays on Religion, Politics, and Society by Cardinal George Pell
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…