Pacific University Books

Founding father of economic conservatism, Smith nevertheless sympathized with the working class and scorned landlords and other capitalists whom he deemed incapable of heeding public regulations. Today his books are frequently quoted yet seldom read. Smith was far less optimistic than many people assume; though he considered capitalism the basis for personal freedom, he expected that both the propertied class and the workers would push for their narrow self-interests.

This is one of the most recent books published about the history/fate of West Papua under Indonesia rule.
It covers events mostly from the Indonesian takeover till late 1999, with a short preface summarizing events and trends up to 2001. After a short overview of the history of Papua, particular attention is paid to the early history of the OPM guerilla movement, to the economic importance of the province to Indonesia (based on local government statistics), the Freeport mine, and events between 1995-1999.
While individual cases of human rights abuses are mentioned, the major focus of the book is the impact of Indonesian economic development and the accompanying demographic changes and environmental damage on the life and future of the Papuans.
Its conclusion, that independence is the only way the native Papuan people can survive, is hopefully incorrect as in view of recent political developments in Papua independence seems an even less likely outcome today than it did when much of this book was written.

The Irish in Australia is a general history of the contribution of people of Irish birth to Australian national life and character first published in 1986 by New South Wales University professor of history, Patrick O'Farrell. The fifth paperback edition published in 1993 contains 362 pages with two prefaces, eight chapters - the eighth a new one on the "The New Irish - an updated bibliography, 21 useful pages of additional reading sources and an index.

The book is a rich chronicle based on primary and archival material noteworthy for its geographic scope as well as its leverage of study the author has done for other work he has published on Irish migration. He describes his sources as small, no doubt one of the reasons he pursued his research on a global basis at several points in Australia and at others in Belfast, Dublin and Rome.

Caution is recommended to readers who might infer too broad a meaning to the book's title, assuming it suggests the Irish in Australia were a homogenous community. On the contrary, O'Farrell weaves a complicated saga of people from Gaelic-Catholic, Anglo-Irish and Ulster Protestant traditions - seasoned with a few Irish Jews and Quakers - engaged in three areas of almost constant conflict.

* Conflict between distinct, separate and essentially poor Irish-Australian cultural factions;
* Conflict, "often bitter, sometimes violent," between Australians of Irish birth and the Australian establishment;
* Conflict, "often hostile and sometimes most indignant in its refusal to accept the Irish as true and proper Australians" between the Australian Irish and non-Irish communities.

The parameters of Australia's early foundation were marked by English and Irish extremes. Of the two national ancestral groups, O'Farrell claims the Irish have been the more dynamic force in the evolution of Australian national character.

O'Farrell uses extensive data to explain Australia's foundation as a British penal colony. He reports just over 40,000 mostly Catholic convicts were sent to Australia directly from Ireland by 1853, 26 percent of them women. Of the convicts sent from England, he cites estimates suggesting perhaps 8,000 were Irish-born and a similar number were of Irish ancestries. Irish social rebels, those convicted of crimes of protest against poverty and landlordism, were about 20 percent of the total. The rest can be described properly as ordinary criminals, mostly thieves. O'Farrell undoubtedly offends select conventional wisdom that upholds Irish convicts as honorable victims of gross injustice, social oppression and national persecution, or as heroic rebels. "The facts," he writes, "seem otherwise."

One of the strongest personalities in the formation of the Australian-Irish community was Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran, Archbishop of Sydney from 1884 to 1911. Known for his discipline, dignity and pride in Irish identity, Moran advocated inclusion of the Australian-Irish into the British-run colonial society as themselves, not as imitation Anglo-Saxons. Careful to avoid any appearance of Irish nationalism, Moran stood for the richness of Irish culture, making no apologies for what was Irish. Polished and refined, Moran made it clear, "Australia must swallow the Irish potion neat." Moran's stance framed one side of the continuously simmering conflict between the English colonial administration and the new Australian-Irish population. On the other, the establishment insisted de facto membership in society was dependent on the Irish abandoning their identity. The Australian-Irish would have none of it.

Along with Cardinal Moran, about 2,000 mostly Irish Catholic priests arrived in Australia in the 19th Century and waged a holy war to capture the Australian wilderness of indifference, neglect, heresy and sin. Precisely because the Australian-Irish Catholic laity was so dominated by their exuberant, sometimes belligerent clergy, they were saved from the political tribalism and clannishness into which the American Irish fell. The immigrant priests established Irish Catholic symbols everywhere by building hundreds of churches, schools and convents throughout the country. Their presence and impact was ubiquitous.

Perhaps because of the strong emotion in much Irish poetry and song as well as the long economic and political struggle against Britain, there are several theories for the genesis of free Irish emigration to Australia. O'Farrell acknowledges many, but cuts to the chase with a thesis of common sense. He says the best left Ireland for Australia, not the worst. "It took initiative, resourcefulness, capacity and also, obviously, money."

The first free Irish in Australia built their image in the outback. Many experienced farmers arrived from Ireland between 1860 and 1880, finding immediate opportunity in affordable, plentiful land. Many originally non-farming Irish immigrants gravitated to these quickly successful Australian-Irish agrarian communities, investing their wages from first jobs as common laborers and miners into farms of their own. This combination of real and nouveau Irish immigrant farmers built sizeable Irish communities around the major cities in New South Wales, Victoria and the other colonies.

As time passed, Irish migrants gravitated more to Australia's cities, grouping together beneath the structures of neighborhood, parish church and school, workplace / work role, political party and sports. However, O'Farrell makes it clear the urban Irish in Australia did not retreat into ghettos like many of their emigrant countrymen in the U.S. and England. They maintained their communities, but considered themselves Australian-Irish, not just Irish, and strove to function as fully bona fide members of Australian society.

Useful data are plentiful in this book. We read that 342,842 Irish "free" immigrants arrived in Australia and New Zealand between 1851 and 1921, with 101,000 landing in the Victorian gold rush decade of 1851-60. This compares to nearly four million Irish who left the Old Sod for North America. Very few Famine refugees went to Australia, mainly because of the distance and greater expense of the journey. O'Farrell maintains the Irish people who went to Australia and New Zealand were "a much more accomplished, venturesome and happy lot than those the Famine had dumped on America." It is also true, however, that the Irish arrived relatively late in America, a country already settled and an environment more closed to them than was the case in Australia. Ironically, Australia was seen by many Irish as offering greater opportunity than America, where the urban ghetto - much like what they knew at home - awaited them.

O'Farrell refers to the celebration of St. Patrick's Day in Australia several times, explaining its various forms as a religious saint's feast day, a political statement, a social holiday and a boozy down-market street party. Occasionally it was all four, but most often it balanced precariously between an excuse for a drink-up and a lightning rod of both general public and Irish-Australian disapproval for its divisive, irrelevant rowdiness. Cardinal Moran took control of St. Patrick's Day observances during his tenure, trying to bring a sense of balance, sobriety and respectful Australian-Irish character to it. Sadly the celebration remains most famous for excessive drinking, brawling and otherwise objectionable behavior of many participants.

Several lay individuals played prominent roles in sustaining the Australian-Irish community. J.G. O'Connor, who had arrived in Australia from Ireland in 1841 at the age of two, became Sydney's premier Irish social chairman for over 40 years in the last half of the century. He acted under the mantle of the Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society, founded in Victoria in 1871 and spread rapidly throughout Australia and New Zealand in the 1880s. Neither a nationalist radical nor a man of great means, O'Connor was the quintessential hale hearty, well met Irishman, always promoting an Australian-Irish cause to raise money. The Hibernians continue their preservation of Irish heritage, loyal support of the Catholic Church and good works for the less fortunate today.

The Australian Irish, then and now, take great pride in their sporting life. Sport allowed them to create instant heroes to help fill their needs for self-esteem. One of the most famous was Australian-born boxer Les Darcy who came to fame in Sydney in 1914. O'Farrell describes Darcy as "a pure and simple hero, a good boy who loved and looked after his mother, went to daily Mass, said the rosary - and won: the power in his fists came straight from God." At his death in 1917 at age 21, Darcy was discussed by some as a potential nominee for canonization as Australia's first saint.

O'Farrell explains how single Irish women immigrants often outnumbered Irish men in Australian cities. Bachelor Irish men in the cities tended to work at inferior jobs with low status and realized their inability to offer a woman much more than a life of drudgery and poverty. Their alternatives were to defer marriage until they accumulated sufficient wealth or not marry at all. As a result, many Irish female immigrants as well as first generation Irish-Australian women never wed.

This resulted in substantial age differentials between husbands and wives in the early Australian-Irish community. It also meant Irish-Australian widows of means as well as spinsters were not uncommon in Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Irish immigrants didn't carry nearly as much of their homeland to Australia as one might assume. The Catholic school system where many Australian Irish sent their children competed with public schools in examinations. The priests and nuns who ran the schools were thus forced to load their syllabi with state-mandated classes on top of religious instruction, attendance at Mass and various other church events. "There was no room in the school day for Irish culture," O'Farrell writes. In addition, Irish Catholic Australians didn't want their children studying and embracing Irish culture. Most regarded the study of Ireland as irrelevant in their new situation as Australians.

"The Irish in Australia" by Patrick O'Farrell is a well-researched, comprehensive work written in a pleasant style describing the conflicts faced by people of Irish birth who emigrated to Australia. It bridges the great distance between Ireland and Australia with well-documented demographics as well as numerous stories of colorful Australian-Irish personalities from all corners of society. It includes numerous comparisons of the Australian-Irish immigrant experience with that of the much larger group of Irish emigrants to the United States. It provides entertaining and informative insight into Australia's rich Irish character and must be considered a premier source on Irish migration.

"The Irish in Australia" has been honored with the New South Wales Premier's Award for non-fiction and the Ernest Scott Prize for Australian history.

This book is by far the most comprehensive Irish - Australian historical book I have ever come across. If you can get your hands on one of these books you will not be disappointed. It covers every aspect of Irish history in Australia. Patrick O'Farrell has done a great job in researching and compiling this book.

Andrew Carnegie was one of the major figures in American history, who made his fortune in steel (giving most of it away for libraries) and wrote this biography three years before he died in 1919. Watt invented the improved steam engine that revolutionized the world. I can't think of any other biography written by such a great man, about such a great man, possibly excepting the Gospel of Mark.

Carnegie's description of Watt's life is reverent almost to the point of unseemly hero-worship, but is laced with some most interesting insights into his own psyche and personal history. Watt, according to this account, was a giant to his contemporaries, not only for his technological accomplishments, but also because of his sweet and loyal disposition. I'm sure that Carnegie saw parallels there too. Although the language that Carnegie uses can seem archaic at times, the book is quite enjoyable: inspiring, even.

His description of Watt's inventions and the technical insights required to achieve them are lucidly explained in the book, and it is clear that Carnegie was no mere business tycoon. Even his explanation of latent heat is clear and insightful, and a delight to read. When he describes the business relationship between Watt and his partner Boulton, one learns something about the goodness in them both, unqualified and complete.

This brilliant and highly readable book deals mostly with Japan, specifically how the Japanese government shapes its civil society through its influence over non-governmental agencies in that country. In so doing, the author also raises troubling and provacative questions about how, through the multitude of NGOs permitted in the U.S., we conduct our own political and social affairs. I don't think anyone can read this book and not rethink the kind of political polarization and cacophonous social climate we have created in this country through the proliferation of NGOs, from the AARP to the Sierra Club.

Written circa 1890, this is a diary-like essay on the lives of Japanese women at the turn of the century. It explains many of the old customs that are still present today among certain classes in Japan and those customs that will be used for the new Princess Royal born in 2001.

For those who know modern Japan, it is a an interesting comparative on the lives of women over time.

This oversized illustrated paperback, the catalog for an ambitious exhibition at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage (Los Angeles) combines trenchant historical narrative, essays, and opinion with a treasure trove of photographs, mini-biographies, contemporary descriptions, diary entries, letters, maps, paper arcana and more in order to explain and explore the complex and interesting story of the Jews of the American West. The story begins in the 1880's and ends with the 1924 Immigration Restriction Act, which severely curtailed further Jewish immigration to the US.

James Nottage contributes a Foreword in which he poses the question, Just what is a Westerner? In fact, the American Jewish westward migration was a picture of diversity and variety. Married and unmarried men and women, entire families, and orphans found their way West, often in reaction to economic conditions in the eastern United States, sometimes because of wanderlust or an urge to farm - or just out of curiosity.

Immigrants experienced problems of adjustment and, often, acute isolation. The early years were often difficult. Community had to be built from scratch. One boy wrote to a popular newspaper column," I am all alone in this world, and am an orphan and live out here among the cowboys trying to earn an honest livelihood." Communities in Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington were begun, grew, and thrived.

Dr. Kahn contributes two essays. The first, "Looking at America from the West to the East, 1850-1920's" explores Jewish expectations of economic opportunity: the Gold Rush, the fur trade, and opportunities in mercantilism and agriculture. Hasia Diner's "American West, New York Jewish" explores picture of the West as drawn by Easterners, and includes a remarkable "Map of the United States in Yiddish," first published in 1912 in the book "Guide to the United States for the Jewish Immigrant," by John Carr, and published under the auspices of the Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution.

Agriculture, the building of community, politics, culture, inevitable class tensions, anti-Semitism, and the various roles of women are explored at length in this exhibition as in its catalog. The names - of people, congregations, and businesses - are here, too. Historical societies and families have provided archival material. Along with seventy illustrations there are census data, notes, and a good index in this smart and moving tour of the historic Jewish American West.

In his Afterword historian M. Rischin asserts that the mandate of the Autry Museum was to "divest the history of the American West of its bunkum and hokum." This book succeeds handily.

This book brings back many memories as Jim Walden built a program that had been the joke of almost all collegiate football and made it into what would eventually become a frequent Bowl participant and a conference championship contender. Walden was the third coach hired in the last three year, he made a promise to stay with the downtrodden program and even though he was not there when WSU made it's improbable apearance in the '97 Rose Bowl, He clearly planted to seeds that started the turnaround. Very similar to the Cindarella story of the Mariners.

Collaboratively written by W. Raymond Wood (Professor of Anthropology, University of Missouri-Columbia), Joseph C. Porter (Chief Curator, North Carolina Museum of History), and David C. Hunt (Director, Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas), and enhanced with numerous black-and-white illustrations and studio art reproductions, Karl Bodmer's Studio Art is a truly captivating collection of images and an informative, scholarly study of the works of Karl Bodmer, a Swiss artist whom Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied selected for an 1833-34 expedition up the Missouri River. Bodmer sketched and painted landscapes and Native American portraits which uniquely captured the imaginations of the western world then and now. Enthusiastically recommended for academic and community library Art History and American History reference collections, Karl Bodmer's Studio Art focuses more on the story of Bodmer's journey than the art itself, yet both the text and the illustrations have a timeless appeal.