**From revolution to civil rights, Old Hollywood to the Space Age—the extraordinary story of a nation that contains multitudes“A masterpiece of concision and analysis. Every American should read it.”—Judith Thurman, National Book Award–winning writer at The New Yorker**When Britain’s thirteen American colonies declared their independence on July 4, 1776, the United States of America was born. It became a profoundly powerful nation that, for much of its history, has...

No other writer has journeyed further into the soul of Australia and returned to tell the taleWatsonia collects the fruits of a writing life. It covers everything from Australian bush humour to America gone berserk; from Don Bradman to Oscar Wilde; from Animal Farm to the Australian parliament. Wherever Watson turns his incisive gaze, the results are as illuminating as they are enjoyable.Artfully arranged, Watsonia showcases the m...

A modern classic: Don Watson’s history of Australia for children of the twenty-first century History told so well it gives us a better idea of who we are – and what we might become.The Story of Australia weaves together the many strands of our nation’s past – ancient and indigenous, colonial and contemporary – to create a fascinating history for all readers, young and old.In clear, succinct language that both children and adults will appreciate, Wa...

Is the United States disintegrating?Don Watson offers a report from the United States that catches the madness and theatre of an election like no other.This is a historically informed, mordant account of Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and a country approaching democratic high noon. From Los Angeles to New York, from Detroit to Kalamazoo, Watson observes America in all its diversity and conflict, reality and unreality. Above all, he sees the threat posed by Trump and his moveme...

This study of British amateur theatre in the inter-war period examines five different but interwoven examples of the belief, common in theatrical and educational circles at the time, that amateur drama had a purpose beyond recreation.Amateur theatre was at the height of its popularity as a cultural practice between the wars, so that by 1939 more British people had practical experience of putting on plays than at any time before or since.Providing an origina...

In Enemy Within, Don Watson takes a memorable journey into the heart of the United States in the year 2016 – and the strangest election campaign that country has seen.Travelling in the Midwest, Watson reflects on the rise of Donald Trump and the “thicket of unreality” that is the American media. Behind this he finds a deeply fearful and divided culture. Watson considers the irresistible pull – for Americans – of the Dream of exceptionalism, and asks whethe...

Corrosive, mad and frequently fatal, indignation is a great destructive force in human affairs, and just as often a wellspring of mirth and merriment. Don Watson traces this seemingly ineradicable emotion in a journey that takes us, via his forebears, Flaubert and The Sopranos, from the Old Testament to Donald Trump.Trump's pitch had less to do with offering voters money and security than with offering them vengeance. He exploited the anger we feel when we are slighted or ...

In Rabbit Syndrome Don Watson takes an analytical look at the ways in which the Australian imagination has always been dominated by America.Why are they so much better than we are? Even when it comes to producing books like the Updike "Rabbit" sequence that tell us what we are like? Why are they also a land of executioners who have nevertheless created the least bad empire the world has seen? Can we really expect to be deputies to America? And what about...

Don Watson takes us on a journey of indignation and how it has been expressed in his forebears. His ire towards US politicians has a new moving target: Donald Trump. The US President's primary pitch had less to do with giving people money or security than it was about vengeance. Trump exploited the anger we feel when we are slighted or taken for granted, turning the politics of a sophisticated democracy into something more like a blood feud. He promised to restore their dignity, slay their...

‘When you write speeches for other people for a living, any audience is a good audience. I address walls and poultry: I stand on a wheelbarrow and give after-dinner speeches as the moon rises over the fowl yard. I say, Eight and a half generations of you fowls I have known. The chooks treat it as a diversion, of course. They get on with the main game. They are pragmatists. Why change it if it works, they reckon, and tilt their heads back and let the water run down their throats.’ – Don Wat...

From revolution to civil rights, Old Hollywood to the Space Age—the extraordinary story of a nation that contains multitudes"A masterpiece of concision and analysis. Every American should read it."—Judith Thurman, National Book Award–winning writer at the New YorkerWhen Britain's thirteen American colonies declared their independence on July 4, 1776, the United States of America was born. It became...

While most Australians live in cities clinging to the coastal fringe, our sense of what an Australian is, or should be, is drawn from the vast and varied inland called the bush. But what do we mean by 'the bush', and how has it shaped us? Starting with his forebears' battle to drive back nature and eke a living from the land, Don Watson explores the bush as it was and as it now is: the triumphs and the ruination, the commonplace and the bizarre, the stories we like to tell about ourselves ...