Australia Books

Little scholarship exists on Australia. Even smaller are the books on Australian Politics. Here is a short history of the Liberal party of Australia, created in the 1940s by Mr. Menzies as a conservative party in opposition to Labour this is the party of the current PM Mr. Howard. This fascinating look explains Australia and its issues including its foreign policy, its role in Vietnam and he struggle for morality among other things. From Menzies, the anti-communist, to Holt who disappeared this is an amazing account. A very interesting story and a necessary read where so little exists on modern Australian politics.

Seth J. Frantzman

This is the one book I require students to buy for my graduate seminar on Australian Film and History because it is simply the most thoughtful, ambitious and informed book on the cultural and political significance of the Australian film industry. It is also a valuable work for anyone interested in national cinemas and their relation to Hollywood.

This is a very comprehensive book but what I really wanted it the Australian National Dictionary, I will be back for that.

This large format almost square book provides a survey of Australian art today. Following an informative illustrated introduction the vast bulk of the book comprises an artist by artist survey covering the full spectrum of Australian painting. Each artist is allotted four pages. The first page provides some brief information about the artist, (as these are written by different contributors the nature of the content varies), along with a very brief biography and selected bibliography, is followed by three pages illustrating the artist's work. The book concludes with some brief notes about the contributors.

Eighty artists are included, and the number of colour illustrations totals 160. The book is most attractively laid out, with imaginative typography along with a careful and varied arrangement of the illustrations, all of which really does show the work to advantage. The range of work covered is vast, ranging from realism to non-representational and including the iconic work of Aboriginal artists. It all makes for a most sumptuous and desirable volume.

BOOK IS VERY DESCRIPTIVE AND INFORMATIVE .... A MUST FOR ANYONE INVOLVED WITH BIRDS.

This book gives you an easy intrduction about Australian Policy. It is very nice structured and easy to read and understand!
Higly recommended for people who wants to know how the Australian Policy works.

Nicely illustrated throughout with vintage black-and-white photography, "Australian Railwayman: From Cadet Engineer To Railways Commissioner" is the personal story of a railroading career that began when Ron Fitch was a 16-year-old engineering cadet in 1926 and concluded some 46 years later after his having worked for two Australian state railways and served as the Commissioner of South Australian Railways. Fitch's memoir includes his observations and experiences with the 'greater railway community' and having to deal from time to time with very difficult conditions, circumstances, and events. From the laying of track, to anecdotes of that very special breed of men who built and operated a nation's railways, to the advancing technologies of railroading, to natural disasters, to the politics of railways, "Australian Railwayman" presents a fascinating and informative account that will prove to be of immense interest to railroad buffs everywhere. Incidentally, Ron Fitch also holds the distinctive honor of being cited in the Guinness Book of World Records as becoming the oldest known recipient of a PhD. In 2002 at the age of 92. His thesis was on South Australian railways.

I'll admit - I'm biased, being the book's photographer, but having had a while to let the book sink in, I had another look and really admire the work we did!

Yes, it's got a lot of text but to my enjoyment and satisfaction, the photographs are reproduced beautifully and the layout compliments both.

If you want a light, fluffy coffee-table book, this probably isn't for you, but if the subject of Australian interiors, antiques and collectables is of interest - it's a 'must'.

Anyway, as I said - I'm biased...

Chris Groenhout

Gary Bouma, Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the Twenty-first Century (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Professor Gary Bouma, an ordained Anglican priest, is head of the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University. He's one of Australia's leading sociologists of religion, and excellently equipped to survey the Australian religious scene.

Australians are more reserved about their expression of religious commitment, writes Bouma, but religion and spiritual life in Australia are not in decline. His firm opinion is that `the secularity of the twenty-first century is not anti-religious or irreligious, as it was in the twentieth century.' `While to many educated in the 1960s and 1970s "Australian religion" was a contradiction in terms or at best an embarrassing legacy of a forgettable past, that is not so now'. A 2005 survey found that 35% of Australians in their twenties said `religion was important in their lives' compared with 21% in 1978. And while `in the twentieth century religion and spirituality often provided an identity and meaning for people, in the twenty-first century the core is the production and maintenance of hope.' Another summary-statement: `The needs addressed by religion and spirituality are core to humanity: hope, and meaning grounded in a connection with that which is more than passing, partial and broken' (p. 205).

The references to theoretical and research sources are authoritative, and in my view are worth the value of the book. The suggested reading, references and index at the back of the book are second-to-none. It's all the work of a careful scholar, who is as familiar as anyone with the main sources of religious knowledge about Australians (the censuses, Christian Research Association, NCLS surveys etc.). And he's an irenic commentator - even when describing what others might call `religious crazies'. (Which means - you guessed it - that he's on the liberal end of the theological spectrum. He recommends the works of Karen Armstrong, for example).

I'd recommend that all clergy, in particular, read this book right through - even those in mainline churches who are having a hard time attracting new parishioners. (`The formerly mainstream Protestant groups find themselves on the margins of a world they do not understand' p. 171). Although a substantial majority of Australians continue to identify with a religious group, religious and spiritual life is becoming more diverse, and less tied to formal organizations. This book is strong on analysis, diagnosis, trends, surveys, aetiology, rather than prescription. The parish clergy I work with want to know `How can we in the churches harvest this growing interest in religion/ spirituality, without sacrificing our intelligence to fundamentalism, or our traditions to the latest cultural trends (eg. in music)?' Bouma's book doesn't answer these questions directly, but if read carefully, my dear Watson, there are clues everywhere!

Now, some interesting facts/opinions in the `Did you know?' or `Want to argue with this?' categories:

`There are now more Australian Buddhists than Baptists, more Muslims than Lutherans, more Hindus than Jews and more than twice as many Sikhs as Quakers' (pp. 55-6)

`In the 2001 census [there was] a dramatic rise in the number of Australians who wrote something down that related more to spirituality than to particular organized religious groups' (p. 61)... `Only otiose religion is an opiate; the rest is dynamite' (p. 197)

Between 1996 and 2001 the following Christian groups were among those suffering from numerical decline (Source: ABS census data): Brethren (down 12.28%), Churches of Christ (- 18.25%), Presbyterian/Reformed (- 5.57%), Salvation Army (- 3.67%), Uniting Church (- 6.46%). Baptists grew by 4.75%, Catholics 4.22%, Pentecostals 11.37%, `Other Christian' 27.95%. [Why have the Baptists roughly kept pace with population growth but their sister denomination the Churches of Christ declined? My opinion: factor in the growth in the greater number of Baptist megachurches and ethnic congregations].

The Christian groups emanating from Britain in the 1800s - Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists etc. - `are moving from asking "Will our children have faith?" to "Will our faith have children? ...They have effectively lost two generations and are in the process of losing a third' (p. 67)

`It is not acceptable to express unhappiness in a Pentecostal assembly. Sadness, grief and guilt are but momentary transitional feelings on the way to ecstasy and praise. Pentecostal forms of Christianity do not demand orthopraxy or orthodoxy so much as orthopassy' (p. 94)

`The primary aim of the evangelical movement is to gather people out of society and into the church, not to engage the world or to engage in attempts to shape the world from which they seek to draw people' (p. 134)

Since the Age of Reason began `God was seen as the lawgiver, the source of reason... This era saw the rise of Calvinism and the Jesuits, who quintessentially expressed Christianity via reason. [Hence] the phrase "Think right thoughts and be saved; think wrong thoughts and be damned". All of this is reflected in creeds, confessions and statements of union, which essentially demand that the believer "Toe the creedal line and you will be all right"' (p. 166)

Disclosure: I studied with Gary Bouma towards a PhD in the early 1990s - and enjoyed the stimulation of being in academia again - but decided there were too many other competing demands for my time, and `demitted'.

Rowland Croucher
June 2007

This book was published in 1987 and knowledge of the history and significance of Austrailian studio pottery has increased since then. However this is the most useful work for identifying studio works and to obtain short bios. on the artists. It is highly sought by collectors of Australian pottery and is a worthy addition to a reference collection. Note a new book covering Australian Studio potters will be available SHORTLY through the Shepparton Art Gallery, Austalia. The Author is Greg Hill.