What happened at Essendon, what happened at Cronulla, is only part of the story. From the basement office of a suburban football club to the seedy corners of Peptide Alley to the polished corridors of Parliament House, The Straight Dope is an inside account of the politics, greed and personal feuds which fuelled an extraordinary saga.Clubs and coach... Read more...

People have good reason to demand decent public education and a well-funded health system, to yearn for an economy that doesn't trash the environment or for a smaller gap between rich and poor. Almost without exception, sound economics is on their side.We've grown used to public debates that pit people and the planet against an abstract, distorted i... Read more...

Born and bred in north-western New South Wales, Tony Windsor has held the balance of power in state and federal parliaments for nearly a third of his public life. He has always stood as an Independent, believing it was the only way he could achieve the attention country voters deserved from the major parties.Windsor's Way reveals Tony's courageous p... Read more...

Far from being the work of a madman, Anders Breivik's murderous rampage in Norway was the action of an extreme narcissist. As the dead lay around him, he held up a finger asking for a Band-Aid.Written with the pace of a psychological thriller, The Life of I is a compelling account of the rise of narcissism in individuals and society. Manne examines ... Read more...

Ten years after the Cronulla riots, the violence, racism and branding of young bodies with signs and symbols of Australian nationalism, along with the reprisal attacks by Lebanese-Australian youth, continues to inflame discussions about race relations in Australia, with many conversations shifting away from ideas of multiculturalism and cultural div... Read more...

The Winter Meanjin, guest-edited by Hilary McPhee, features a Meanjin Papers essay from political journalist and biographer Chris Wallace, who looks at the sense (or lack thereof) of common sense, and the state of the economy, locally and globally.Antony Loewenstein writes from nascent nation South Sudan, and Drusilla Modjeska reflects on the inform... Read more...

Nothing prepares a person for the job of chief of staff to a Commonwealth Minister. There are no professional development courses, no specialist recruitment agencies and no training manuals.It was into this vortex that Allen Behm became chief of staff to Greg Combet in 2009, the minister responsible for managing carbon pricing and the pink batts cri... Read more...

Over the twentieth century 35,000 Australians suffered as prisoners of war in conflicts ranging from World War I to Korea. What was the reality of their captivity? Beyond Surrender presents for the first time the diversity of the Australian 'behind-the-wire' experience, dissecting fact from fiction and myth from reality.Beyond Surrender examines the... Read more...

Our bush heritage helped to define our identity, but today Australia is a nation of cities. A higher proportion of Australians live in cities than almost any other country, and most of our national wealth is generated in them. For most of the twentieth century, our cities gave us some of the highest living standards in the world. But they are no lon... Read more...

In this gorgeously illustrated book, join Betty Churcher on a personal tour of her most beloved works, including masterpieces by Rembrandt, Goya, Manet, Velázquez, Courbet, Vermeer and Cézanne.A trained artist, Betty's sketches reveal the secrets within the artworks and the processes of their creation.With the gift for making art accessible that ... Read more...

In Australian Notebooks, Betty Churcher revisits some of the artworks she most cherishes—a seminal Picasso, early works of the Heidelberg School, a striking portrait by Lucian Freud—and invites us to look afresh at the treasures that can be found in Australian galleries.Taking in the glorious work of Australian artists such as John Olsen... Read more...

Fast-paced Australian political fiction, Challenge unfolds over three days in an atmosphere of treachery and deceit, amid a looming federal leadership challenge.Opposition leader Daniel Slattery is a former sporting hero from the wrong side of the tracks, politically principled and courageous, but also personally unhinged and highly volatile. He is ... Read more...

Were we a nation of rogues? Beyond recurrent images of convicts and bushrangers, what do we know about ordinary people's experience of crime and punishment in colonial Australia?Despite an abundance of sources, it is only recently that this question has been framed and answers sought. the impetus has come from concern with current issues such as rel... Read more...

Melbourne University Press is proud to present Manning Clark's six-volume series, A History of Australia, published here for the first time in three paperback volumes. Today the six-volume history is one of the masterpieces of Australian writing. It is also one of the most passionately debated visions of Australian history, in which the struggle to ... Read more...

Melbourne University Press is proud to present Manning Clark's six-volume series, A History of Australia, published here for the first time in three paperback volumes. Today the six-volume history is one of the masterpieces of Australian writing. It is also one of the most passionately debated visions of Australian history, in which the struggle to ... Read more...

'Jim Sharman is one of Australia's visionary greats: low-brow, high-brow, pop yet classical, fearless and fun.'—Baz Luhrmann'The Sharman/Shaman/Showman firmament twinkles with galaxies as diverse as Rocky Horror, Hair, discovering Kubrick, Lou Reed, Weimar cabaret. He made Australian creativity hip and original and international when it really... Read more...