A history of sexuality runs the risk of confirming popular fears that academics are capable of ruining even the most simple of pleasures. This book, however, is written in the hope that histories of sexuality (although not necessarily this one) can enlighten and, occasionally, even delight. At their best such histories offer a means of investigating the clash of instinct and culture — how seemingly timeless and natural behaviours shape and are in turn shaped by history. Sexual practices ma...

'The distribution of wealth is far more equal. To begin with, there is no poor class in the colonies. Comfortable incomes are in the majority, millionaires few and far between.'This opinion, voiced a century ago by a British journalist on a tour of the colonies, sums up the widely-held and long-lived view that Australia was a working man's paradise, an egalitarian society free of the poverty afflicting other countries.Such a view could only persist if the poor were ignored ...

The achievements of Australian servicemen and women have played a central role in shaping Australia's national identity. While we rightly commemorate the sacrifices of Australians in war, we have ignored those who returned to Australia and their struggles to reintegrate into society. The Cost of War: War, Return and the Re-Shaping of Australian Culture focuses on the Anzacs who returned from the two world wars, the Korean War and Vietnam. Many of the challenges outlined in the boo...

The Dawkins reforms of the late 1980s and the creation of the Unified National System roused passions at many universities across the nation over fears for the academic enterprise and Australia's system of free, public university education. With much at stake, the Dawkins reforms became a hot topic of discussion across university campuses, and even between Vice-Chancellors and state education ministers. Vice-Chancellors were threatened with motions of no-confidence, staff argued furiously ...

In 2012, Anne Summers gave two landmark speeches about women in Australia, attracting more than 120,000 visits to her website. Within weeks of their delivery Prime Minister Julia Gillard's own speech about misogyny and sexism went viral and was celebrated around the world. Summers makes the case that Australia, the land of the fair go, still hasn't figured out how to make equality between men and women work. She shows how uncomfortable we are with the idea of women with political and finan...

How did the big banks get away with so much for so long? Why are so many aged-care residents malnourished? And when did arms manufacturers start sponsoring the Australian War Memorial?In this passionate essay, Richard Denniss explores what neoliberalism has done to Australian society. For decades, we have been led to believe that the private sector does everything better, that governments can’t afford to provide the high-quality services they once did, but that sec...

**Longlisted, Australian Political Book of the Year Award 2022**Why is education in Australia failing?Where did we go wrong, and how do we fix it?The Gonski Review seemed like a breakthrough. Commissioned by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and chaired by leading businessman David Gonski, the 2011 review made clear that school education policy wasn’t working, and placed a spotlight on the troubling and growing gap between the education...

Presenting the most recent research and written by an expert in the field, this examination explores the principal interrelationships between the British Crown and the Maori people in the 1950s and 1960s when Crown assimilation policies intensified—and during the 1970s—when the pressure of the Maori renaissance encouraged policies and goals based on biculturalism. A subject central to New Zealand's culture, this is an important and historical analysis of the country and the wider issue of ...

The global political environment in the twenty-first century is proving dynamic and challenging for Australian policymakers and political institutions. Australian Politics in the Twenty-first Century contextualises the Australian political landscape through an institutional lens. It examines the legislative and judicial bodies, minor parties, lobby groups, the media and the citizenry, providing historical and contemporary facts, explaining political issues and examining new challenges. The...

Australians once trusted the democratic process. While we got on with our lives, we assumed our politicians had our best interests at heart.Not anymore. That trust has collapsed.Mark Latham joined the Labor Party in the late 1970s hoping to improve people's lives through parliamentary service. Twenty-five years later, the Opposition Leader ended up as disillusioned as the rest of us. The scorching honesty of ***The Latham Diaries***ensured he'd burned his political bridges,...

In this fully revised third edition of Australia's Welfare Wars , Philip Mendes questions many of the key values and assumptions that determine contemporary social welfare policies, and the factors and forces that shape these policies in Australia.

Does history repeat itself in meaningful ways, or is each problem unique? How can a knowledge of Australian history enhance our understanding of the present and prepare us for the future?Lessons from History is written with the conviction that we must see the world, and confront its many challenges, with an understanding of what has gone before. A diverse range of historians, including Graeme Davison, Yves Rees, Joan Beaumont, Ann Curthoys, Mahsheed Ansari, Peter Spearritt...