Australia Books

This is an important albeit not uncontroversial contribution to the field of international political economy. The book tries to answer the question whether the world capitalist system is in crisis and the paths available for future world development. The works are firmly located within the world system thesis expounded by Wallerstein in many of his previous works.

The book intoruduces the concept of 6 vectors within which future paths can be examined. These are the inter-state system; world production; world labour force; human welfare; cohesion of states; and the structures of knowledge.

The book displays the weaknesses inherent in the world system thesis. These include overstating the degree of integration of the economies of the world and thus not taking into account the emergence of "non-states" run either by armed bandits or by organised crime.

The book does not deal adequately with the current state of the state. Given the debate around MNCs and their increasing expansion into areas which were the domain of the state this is an issue needing serious appraisal.

The depiction of this era as being a post US hegemonic era is also an area which will be contested by many writers, not least of all the Fukuyama's of the world.

Wallerstein concludes that the future depends onm how the following factors develop: * the extent to which there is loyalty to citizenship;

* the level of security through police order; the extent to which military orders are maintained; * level of welfare especially in relation to health and food distribution; * stability of religious institutions.

Hardback bound in blue cloth with dustcover. 533 pages, over 100 photo illustrations and maps, index. "The book tells not only of the wide-spread and varied operations of the Australian squadrons in the S.W.P.A. and Australian individuals in Burma but of the difficult problem of allocating command responsibilities within a force part of which was assigned to General MacArthur and part controlled by the Minister for Air through his Chief of Air Staff. The story of Japanese reactions to Allied air operations has been told with the help of enemy records which put familiar events in a new light."

Hardback bound in blue cloth with dustcover. 533 pages, over 100 photo illustrations and maps, index. "The book tells not only of the wide-spread and varied operations of the Australian squadrons in the S.W.P.A. and Australian individuals in Burma but of the difficult problem of allocating command resonsibilities within a force part of which was assigned to General MacArthur and part controlled by the Minister for Air through his Chief of Air Staff. The story of Japanese reactions to Allied air operations has been told with the help of enemy records which put familiar events in a new light."

Too often Australia's development is written off as a bunch of British prisoners sent there for punishment - when in fact there were some notable individuals in its history. "Alexander Collie: Colonial Surgeon, Naturalist, and Explorer" is a look at one of those notable individuals, Alexander Collie, a renown scientist from Scotland who did much to help the colony in its early days and helped establish it for future generations. A complete look at a oft-forgotten individual, "Alexander Collie: Colonial Surgeon, Naturalist, and Explorer" is highly recommended for community library biography collections.

The story is about four sister Vivienne,Cathy,Heather and Grace. They live in a Australian country town. There called Morjorie Powell which the four sister really hates. And Mr Pratlow a mean old teacher they also dislke. In each chater there is a new story throught out the book the sisters share the fellings of happyness, Bullied, saddness dreams and hope.I thing the book is book and my fav part is the end when Vivienne says " Blue unclouded weather thats what it going to be for christmas tomorrow.

John Baxter's account of the aerial aspects of Australia's (fictional) wars with Indonesia and India differs from most alternate histories. It is written in the style of an Osprey-type book, complete with color profiles of the aircraft. Aussie Hawker Hunters, TSRs, Rotodynes, Skyraiders, etc.

This book gives a great insight into the training and deployment of the Australian SAS without giving away any strategic secrets. As the first book of its kind about these truly amazing guys, it really does give the unique flavour of our men, as well as an overview of the liaisons and negotiations that have had to be undertaken in order for these unique soldiers to be deployed. Their broad technical/military/people skills, along with their incredibly personally overseen personal training within the unit (the trainers know these soldiers inside and out!, have created a unique soldier that is in demand world wide.
Whilst this is an overview, and doesn't infringe on the privacy or work of any individual within the unit, it does at last give an enduring taste of these amazing soldiers and the lives that they lead. I tip my hat to them - one and all!

This is an unauthorized account of an e-commerce leviathan's rise from obscurity. So, if one is looking for a detailed business module or a blue print of its technology, look elsewhere, as this is not the book for you. What this book offers is a very interesting, well-organized narrative on the early, heady days of Amazon.com. when it was just an upstart internet bookseller looking to make its mark big time, as well as a look at its founder, Jeff Bezos, painting a flattering and intriguing portrait of this now multi-billionaire.

For its founder, Jeff Bezos, it was not, however, just about the money. If that were the case, he would never have left his seven figure Wall Street job. For him, it was about the opportunity to be on the ground floor of a business that would change the retailing community forever. Jeff Bezos, a true visionary, chose to take that challenge, and in doing so, he would forever change the dot.com world and the retailing community. The author, a business reporter for various publications, delineates just how it was that Jeff Bezos did so.

This book offers up an interesting summary on how Jeff Bezos was able to take the online community by storm and upset the status quo. The author provides a biographical narrative on who Jeff Bezos is. It is grounded in the context of where he grew up, his schooling, as well as his early interests. It segues from his Ivy League educational underpinnings to his foray into the upper echelons of Wall Street, deriving the experience that he needed in order to take on the risky proposition of starting up his own dot.com company. It is clearly the story of a visionary and decision maker with heart.

The book succinctly details the rise of Amazon.com as an e-commerce force with which to be reckoned. It tracks its growth and change from an upstart, fledging, by- the-seat-of-its-pants-company to one that is now a staple of the popular lexicon. It superficially explores the philosophy of Jeff Bezos in terms of having his business "get big fast" and the technological, financial, and logistical hurdles that the business needed to overcome in order to do so. The author also keys in on the ability of Jeff Bezos to think out of the box, when so many business pundits said that what he sought to do could not be done.

The overall texture of this book is enhanced by Information provided by those with some insider knowledge, such as those who knew Jeff Bezos, those who worked with him in those early halcyon days, rival "brick and mortar" executives, business analysts, and financiers, among others. This book, which is a look at a visionary and his company, details how that visionary was able to transform his company into a veritable cultural phenomenon unto itself. Those who are devotees of Amazon will find this well-written book heady stuff, indeed, as it makes for absorbing reading.

This wonderful book, beautifully designed and printed, has 625 postcards of American buildings selected from six thousand in the author's collection. He chose these for their relevance and graphic rendering. Most of them probably originated from the Curt Teich company based in Chicago (they printed 360,000 different cards over the years). Van Malderen writes a short informative introduction about his collection and the architectural postcard. The majority show multi-storied buildings, especially skyscrapers but there are plenty of factories, docks, bridges, churches, street scenes and more. The buildings were photographed and then drawn (some artist drew the short straw and had to put all the windows in) to bring out the best of the structure, frequently removing nearby buildings so the original was left in all its glory.

The cards are arranged alphabetically by city, from Atlanta to Washington DC, New York, naturally, has the most, over 150. A nice touch is that some cards have stamps and cancellation marks on them and a few have the sender's handwriting, telling the folks back home that the building shown really is as big as it looks!

For such a lovely book I am surprised that the publishers did not include an index. Two other architectural postcard books worth checking out are `Wish You Were Here' by Barry Zaid, full of hotels (and their interiors) from the thirties and forties and like 'American Architecture' beautifully produced. `Not Only Building: New York' by Italo Rota, a 480 page paperback with 300 postcards. I thought it was rather badly produced, too many enlargements of the cards which unfortunately only emphasise the mass printing quality of the originals.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

The American Express Travel Guide of Amsterdam (1992), written by Derek Blythe, has been re-written by Carol Winkelman and re-published as Travel&Leisure: Amsterdam (1997). Travel&Leisure magazine, in conjunction with Macmillan Travel, designed this new version of the book for a larger audience that includes young travelers, budget travelers, babyboomer travelers, discriminating travelers, and business travelers. The new book is a combination of traditional and offbeat travel guide, helping the reader find his/her way to hotels, restaurants, museums, and historical sites while also taking him/her "inside" Amsterdam to experience its cafe culture, lively arts scene, and famous nightlife. The new book, like The American Express Guide, includes an excursion to Rotterdam that leads the reader from the historic to the ultramodern.