Is Christine Wallace’s review of the new Gillard biography an ‘absolute...
In the latest issue of the Monthly, Christine Wallace reviews Jacqueline Kent’s new biography of Julia Gillard. Wallace has her own Gillard biography coming out next year, a fact she discloses in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Goddess of the Market
It’s rare for PhD theses to be turned into good books, but I am glad to report that with Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right Jennifer Burns has beaten the odds. Her book is readable...
View ArticleBooks that influenced me
Not many Australian bloggers picked up on the Tyler Cowen-initiated listing of their 10 most influential books. Andrew Carr was one. (Update: Tim Andrews parodies such list-making.) Rather late, here’s...
View ArticleA missing great book of liberty
The IPA has released its 100 Great Books of Liberty publication, edited by Chris Berg, John Roskam and Andrew Kemp. I wrote 2% of this book – short essays on Mill’s On Liberty and John Locke’s Letter...
View ArticleMalcolm Fraser’s liberalism
Malcolm Fraser’s biography is actually called Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs, but according to his biographer (or narrator, as she calls herself) Margaret Simons ‘Enduring Liberal’ was one...
View ArticleWhat If?
Last night I went to the Melbourne launch of What If?, a new book edited by Peta Seaton in which 30 contributors set out their answers to various what if scenarios, from privatising the school...
View ArticleSpare a thought for authors with bad timing
As an editor of a quarterly magazine, where most articles are commissioned months in advance, articles on current events make me nervous. What happens if the basic facts behind an article change before...
View ArticleDisconnected?
Light blogging due to an exam, an election, travel and work. But in transit I have read Andrew Leigh’s new book Disconnected, about social capital in Australia. In his introduction, Andrew L tells us...
View ArticleFree speech and hate speech
Katharine Gelber’s new book Speech Matters: Getting Free Speech Right is for the most part a useful summary of speech laws in Australia, and the issues surrounding them. The key chapters are on using...
View ArticleRobust political economy (or why classical liberal institutions are best)
I was impressed by Mark Pennington when I heard him speak at a Mont Pelerin Society conference a couple of years ago, and am more impressed now after having read his new book Robust Political Economy:...
View Article
