Oceania Books

"The Oxford Companion to Australian History," revised edition, is edited by Graeme Davison, John Hirst, and Stuart Macintyre. More than 700 pages long, the book is full of alphabetically organized articles. The book's preface notes that the articles range in length from 100 to 2000 words.

The "Companion" is truly vast in scope. Subjects covered include Aboriginal topics (art, history, languages, etc.); people (opera singer Harold Blair, Olympic athlete Betty Cuthbert, suffragist Alice Henry, etc.); cities (Adelaide, Hobart, etc.); newspapers (the "Argus" of Melbourne, the "Canberra Times," etc.); religious bodies and movements (the Uniting Church, etc.); important events (the Cape Grim massacre, the Castle Hill Rising, etc.); political parties; various ethnic groups in Australia, and more.

I particularly appreciated the entries on Australian colloquial terms like "Pommy" and "reffo." There are also many articles that address certain big topics in Australian context: agriculture, censorship, feminism, the film industry, literature, social justice, etc. And interspersed throughout are entries on many other interesting topics: the Bunyip (a mythic animal), convict history, "Waltzing Matilda" (a song), Internet resources, pubs, Vegemite (a food), etc.

Also included: maps, a useful subject index, and a 9-page directory of the book's many contributors. Many bibliographic references are incorporated into the individual entries, making this a good starting place for more in-depth reading on particular topics. The "Companion" is an achievement as big and colorful as Australia itself. While this book is certainly a logical choice for the reference section of any good library, it's also a good book for any individual with an interest in or love for Australia.

This book provides introductions to a wide variety of topics in Australian history. It has been edited by three of the most eminent Australian academic historians and many of the entries have been written by experts in their respective fields. The entries themselves deal with events, people, noted historians and current issues in Australian historiography.

The Pacific Ocean is Earth's largest single feature and covers a third of the planet's surface. But photographer Peter Hendrie has found inspiration enough to add a whole new dimension to the beauty and power of its landscape and the richness of its cultures. It's a dimension that allows him to transform landscape and lifestyle from the merely pictorial to a vibrant experience of the Pacific legend. His pictures capture the piquancy of the moment the image was taken,prompting envy of the photographer's vision plus a valuable insight into how to read such evocative images. No other places on Earth possess the enduring magic of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia, and Hendrie powerfully reinforces their merger of romance and reality.
I rate Pacific Journeys - 5/5

The Pacific Ocean is Earth's single largest feature and covers a third of its surface. But photographer Peter Hendrie has found inspiration enough to apply a whole new dimension to the beauty and power of its panorama and the richness of its cultures. It is a dimension that allows him to transform landscape and lifestyle from the purely pictorial to a vibrant experience of the Pacific legend. His images possess the piquancy of the very moments he captured them, prompting an envy of his vision and a thoroughly-satisfying lesson in how to read evocative images. Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia have no equals when it comes to enduring magic, and Hendrie brilliantly reinforces their unique merger of romance and reality.
I rate Pacific Journeys - 5/5

This is one of those rare academic books that has much to say to the general reader as well. The images are both beautiful and disturbing. I never before realized just how outsiders viewed women of the Pacific regions... once you see it, though, you'll always be aware of it. Dr. O'Brien has written a powerful and important book.

The general reader with an interest in women's studies, history or anthropology will find O'Brien's book, as I did, a well researched and thoroughly intriguing study of Pacific women's lives since the earliest voyages of discovery. The colonial stereotypes of the exotic Pacific woman are analyzed in a contemporary perspective from the viewpoints of art, literature, film and journals of the explorers and missionaries. This book opened my eyes to the facts that since the 1500's women of the Pacific have been romanticized, educated by missionaries, used, abused and sexually exploited for the advantage of the colonial powers.This is a "must read" for understanding the myth of "The Pacific Muse". It opens another window for understanding women's lives for those of us lacking background of Pacific history during this period.

There is absolutely no place on our planet like Papua New Guinea. Wild, wonderful, lawless, infrastructure-less adventure awaits.

I am a research entomologist studying certain groups of insects on New Guinea. Frequently, localities mentioned on sample data labels (villages and small towns)are on not indicated on most atlas maps. This map has many more such localities than do most maps and is thus very useful to me. Additionally, the boundaries of the provinces are clearly indicated. I have thus found this handsome map very useful.
For anyone travelling to PNG, this is the map to get!

Andrew Chaikin is already famous for his splendidly entertaining history of the United States Apollo program. Oscar-winning Tom Hanks used Chaikin's A MAN ON THE MOON as the foundation material for the 1998 Emmy winning Home Box Office documentary series, From the Earth to the Moon. Chaikin now takes us beyond the moon for a delightful journey to the Red Planet with his latest work, A PASSION FOR MARS.

Chaikin knows Mars. Chaikin served as a young intern at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during the Mars Viking Lander program and has since become one of the world's finest space exploration writers. Chaikin is one of those very rare writers who is able to inspire millions of readers by taking a non-fiction story and making it read like a best-selling novel. That unusual talent is probably the reason why Chaikin has inspired a master artist and producer like Tom Hanks.

Why Mars?

Mars has seduced human beings for thousand of years. Pre-telescopic observations of blood-red Mars in the night sky unnerved the ancients and inspired many myths linking Mars to warfare and other unpleasant events. Astrologers and soothsayers carefully monitored the motions of Mars and sought to determine the link between Mars and the fate of human beings. Mysterious Mars still defies our effort to fully unlock all of the secrets of the fourth planet from the sun in spite of the fact that we have landed robotic rovers there and even mapped the entire Red Planet from orbit.

In a single volume of 279 pages, Andrew Chaikin has done more to incite contemporary human interest in Mars than the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has done in fifty-plus years of trying to convince the public that Mars could become our next home.

Chaikin takes readers across that vast, challenging void that lies between Earth and Mars, only to discover that the Red Planet reveals as much about human nature and behavior as it does about the secrets of the universe. The quest for Mars is the story of many individual players who are driven by a variety of motivations and expectations. A PASSION FOR MARS is packed with tantalizing and little known, choice details about the lives of many of the key participants in the continuing story of human beings and the push to understand and reach Mars.

The Never-Ending Mystery of Mars

The scientific innovations of the modern era did little damage to human enthusiasm for Mars. The invention of the telescope inspired a new mythology surrounding the Red Planet called Mars. Earthbound astronomers were never able to see the details of the Martian surface in high resolution. It was obvious that Mars had white polar caps. Astronomers assumed that the poles were covered with ice and snow. The Martian day was almost identical in length to an earth day. Fuzzy discolorations on the surface appeared to wax and wane over times. Some astronomers, as late as the 1950s and 1960s assumed that the changes in surface features were due to some sort of vegetation that blossomed and receded with the Martian seasonal cycles. Mars was ALIVE, in the minds of many.

The excitement over Mars suffered a serious setback when the United States space probe called Mariner 4 sent the first clear images of the Martian surface back to Earth. Mars died a sudden death when those pictures revealed a Moon-like, cratered, dry, world that showed no indications of vegetation, canals, or the ruins of ancient civilizations. The disappointment was devastating for many of those who had dreamed of a habitable Mars. eventually, Mars would undergo an unlikely resurrection when later Mars probes revealed new mysteries on the Red Planet.

Chaikin brings the reader up to speed on Mars as he essentially opens the door to Mars Mission Control and introduces us to the key players in the story of Martian exploration.

The thoughtfully chosen illustrations in Chaikin's book are essential to the larger story of people and Mars. When you purchase your own copy of A PASSION FOR MARS, remove the dust jacket immediately and allow your eyes to dwell on the beautiful images of Mars that are printed on the front and back covers. The illustrations found inside the book offer rarely seen glimpses of space-age players such as Carl Sagan, Wernher von Braun, Chaikin himself, and the more recent leaders of robotic Martian probes. Chaikin also shares some of the fine art created by twentieth-century illustrators in A PASSION FOR MARS.

In summary, Andrew Chaikin takes the reader on a journey through space and time as the human focus on Mars matured from mythology and wild speculation to the hard realities of the modern scientific age. A PASSION FOR MARS will undoubtedly inspire thousands to step out at night and look for the Red Planet for the first time in their individual lives. Telescopes may become a best seller this Christmas!

Andy Chaikin has a done it again. His passion for space exploration is heart-felt and evokes inspiration through a lens of history, science and curiosity. Chaikin manages to blend the best of human vision (such as Ray Bradbury's or Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction) with human achievement (from Mariner to the rover projects).

Discover how Wernher von Braun, Tom Paine, Carl Sagan, and a whole host of lesser-known, yet equally significant people imagined, planned, and implemented missions to explore a crimson, unique world.

This book captures the intense drama of the quest for Mars and the people that envision the exploration of a beautiful red planet (with glorious photographs to prove it). Chaikin has blazed a trail for the future of space exploration. An absolute delight.


Tahir Rahman, author of We Came in Peace for all Mankind: the untold story of the Apollo 11 silicon disc

If you ever want to know anything about the rainforest, this is the series to buy. The author thoroughly discusses people, environment, and hope for rainforests. Beautiful colored pictures throughout the book supports the easy written text. I highly recommend this series to any student who needs to do a report on the rainforest. This series is a must have in any children's library collection.

If you ever want to know anything about the rainforest, this is the series to buy. The author thoroughly discusses people, environment, and hope for rainforests. Beautiful colored pictures throughout the book supports the easy written text. I highly recommend this series to any student who needs to do a report on the rainforest. This series is a must have in any children's library collection.

My history professor claims that this is one book which former students complain about years after having read it. It is dense. There are lots of odd names which run together. It is absolutely not for the casual reader. But I would consider it necessary reading for all scholars of China, Asia, or just history in general. I found it fascinating that the steppe tribes and the various Chinese governments had a not-always unspoken agreement, in which the tribes were essentially allowed to conquer a limited region of China, in exchange for securing trade routes and defending against tribes outside of the system.

Barfield's primary thesis is that the dynamics of Chinese civilization are not intelligible considered in isoloation. Rather, comprehension requires the distinction between Manchurian and Native dynasties and the role that empires of the steppe played in the changes between them.

Of special interest is that by far the best know steppe empire, that of the Mongols under Temujin and his successors, was an anomalous exception to the 2,000 year pattern. Typical steppe empires were interested in extortion (or tribute, or gifts, depending on who tells the story), not direct rule.

If you're a student of Chinese history or of the dynamics of civilizations, read this book. You'll think differently.

the photos are great, i just wish there were more. i am not very interested in the human beings that performed the research, and wish there was more about the animals...

I received this book from a thoughtful, loving, and dear kindred spirit of a friend and while it is being marketed as a children's book, I found that it was just as wonderful as an animal lover's or even a conservationists' (organic-free trade-decaffeinated) coffee table book. Nic Bishop's up close and personal photography is beyond any Life Magazine or National Geo quality color photos. Sy Montgomery's writing takes the reader along on the expedition with all the science, language and even a bit of humor provided in part by the guides. Montgomery has created a fun book for kids and adults alike! A great gift for high school graduates to inspire them to follow their dreams and passions. For kid's, this would make a cake science report book!

Worth buying, Asia is still much like this under the glitz and glamour. The essence is captured!

The story Rain is extraordinarily memorable. I recommend this book, though it's definitely not upbeat!

I read these books many years ago and found them moving, perhaps 'The Sword and the Blossom' the most moving. This, the third book, attempts to understand the Japanese character as it was experienced by the POWs. It's not pretty, but it is necessary if you want to try to come to grips with quite a lot of the meanings behind the Pacific theatre of WWII.

Parkin's writing is well-balanced, as pointed out. The brutality, sadism and all the other things can't be hidden. Parkin wrestles with the complexity of the Japanese psyche in the war. The POWs are men in extreme situations. Some may not act as well as they may have liked, but Parkin doesn't judge them: who could? There are quietly heroic acts that just seem 'normal', but Parkin doesn't make a big deal about it.

What shines through is the author's humanity. In spite of the brutality, he can appreciate the people he meets, the world around him (e.g. 'the coruscating sea'), and capture it in his sketches.

The novels were first published in London in the 1960's, the author himself stating it took this long for him to take a balanced view of the things he saw as a sailor during war and as a prisoner of war under the Japanese. His hand drawn pictures in these works were made whilst in Custody under threat of execution if seized.

Before the war, PARKIN was a professional sailor, after the war he studied as a classical artist, and worked on the wharfs of Melbourne as a tally clerk.

This description meets his works, his love of the sea, his artwork throughout the works, his beautiful descriptions, and his exacting detail.

The first novel is of a shipwreck survivor, it doesn't show it, but he is the hero portrait, it is a TRUE story. The second is a diary of his captivity on the Burma railway, and the third of his captivity in Japan, including the dropping of the A-Bomb. 'He states that a newspaper dropped in by air to Japan when he was first released has three momentous events, atomic weapons, jet propulsion and ball point pens'.

His works are not bitter, if anything appreciative of having lived a life less fortunate. Very Australian in it's style and language, it is as moving as any of the recognized greats. I will not wax lyrical about its style further, the editorials above do so far more eloquently than I could.