As a young teacher graduate, Brian Pearson and his family move to North Westland in New Zealand. He becomes the sole teacher in a small sawmilling settlement in the remote valley just west of the main divide known as the Kopara. Brian also explores the historical struggles of the pioneer settlers in this region of Westland. In particular he examines their fight to be recognised by central government as a functioning community in order to gain basic amenitites such as roads and power. Exten...

Roaming from America to Europe to Australia, Lights Out is a trenchant examination of the tensions between a resurgent Islam and a fainthearted west - and of the implications for liberty in the years ahead. In 2007, the Canadian Islamic Congress brought three suits against Maclean's, Canada's biggest-selling newsweekly, for running an excerpt from Steyn's bestselling book America Alone, plus other flagrantly Islamophobic columns by the author. A y...

The Vietnamese hilltribes made him a demi-god. The CIA wanted to kill him. This is the remarkable true story of Australian war hero Barry Petersen.As he flew over South East Asia towards Vietnam, Captain Barry Petersen struggled to keep an aura of calm. Inwardly he was incredibly excited. Aged 28, highly trained, with experience in anti-communist guerilla warfare, he was about to embark on the biggest and most important mission of his life.In 1963, Australi...

Set in the mid 1850s, the story of Rachel Henning's voyage to Australia is told through the letters she writes to family and friends.Rachel Henning (1826–1914) was born in England. In 1854 she went to Australia, but returned to England in 1856 due to homesickness and the hot climate. However, in 1861, she returned to Australia where she settled permanently. She first lived with her brother and sister on their property in Queensland, but married in 1866 and ...

When author and historian Nick Brodie traced his own family tree, he began to see the pattern of European settlement in Australia. As he learnt about the generations of his family, Nick uncovered the social and cultural contexts and historic circumstances that shaped his ancestors: the Irish, the convicts, the early settlers, Cobb & Co coachmen, the men from Snowy River, the Boer war, Galipolli, the Depression and the second world war. His quest is full of suspense, frustrations and red he...

A revolutionary new way to understand America's complex cultural and political landscape, with proof that local communities have a major impact on the nation's behavior-in the voting booth and beyond.In a climate of culture wars and tremendous economic uncertainty, the media have often reduced America to a simplistic schism between red states and blue states. In response to that oversimplification, journalist Dante Chinni teamed up with political geographer James G...

Hannah August's intelligent and humane study illuminates, sometimes uncomfortably, the ways in which our demographics are changing and our attitudes are not. This is public intellection that is curious, rigorous, and highly relevant to our time.' Eleanor CattonIn 2013, there were over 66,000 more women between the ages of 25-49 living in New Zealand than there were men. This so-called ‘man drought’ is a hot topic for journalists and academics alike, who comment on how the situation might a...

In a world of increasingly mixed identities, what does it mean to belong? As western democracies increasingly curtail their support for multiculturalism, how can migrants establish belonging as citizens? A Muslim Diaspora in Australia explores how a particular migrant group has faced the challenges of belonging. The author illustrates how Bosnian migrants in Australia have sought to find places for themselves as migrants, as refugees, and as Muslims, in Australia and Australian society. Ch...

"However far away from you I am, you are the real centre of my life ..." —Leslie WalfordFor much of the twentieth century the names Leslie Walford and Dora Byrne were synonymous with style and glamour. Walford was the sophisticated, go-to interior designer for Sydney society. His mother, Dora Byrne, was a key figure in Sydney and Southern Highlands social circles.Darling Mother, Darling Son is the first major publication to be drawn from the archive of Leslie Walford...

Social sequence analysis includes a diverse and rapidly growing body of methods that social scientists have developed to help study complex ordered social processes, including chains of transitions, trajectories and other ordered phenomena. Social sequence analysis is not limited by content or time scale and can be used in many different fields, including sociology, communication, information science and psychology. Social Sequence Analysis aims to bring together both foundational and rece...

In 1966 a fire ripped through Melbourne's William Booth Memorial Home for destitute and alcoholic men. Although it remains Australia's deadliest building fire, it is, like the 30 men who died in that fire - forgotten. This shocking narrative describes the inferno's origin and progression, the slowly festering blaze that developed into an explosive backdraft. It recalls the efforts of the firemen who tried, against impossible odds, to rescue the dying men. They alone do not forget the caged...

An insight into those who were labelled prophets in the first century of settlers in New Zealand and the influence they had on the cultural landscape.