The race to know all life

Jason Roberts’ “Every Living Thing – The Great and Deadly Race to Know all Life” is an engrossing, precisely researched book on the lives of Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) and the Compte de Buffon (1707-1788) and their contributions to what became evolutionary science.

Under the same moon

Peter Mitchell’s new novel explores Australia’s plight during mid-WW2 as Japan wreaked havoc through the Asia-Pacific, and prompts the question of our preparedness today as China pursues regional domination.

The last king of Queensland

A new documentary film “Joh: The Last King of Queensland” offers a dramatised account of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s premiership from 1968 to 1987.

Sport for all

There’s nothing new about our modern love of playing and watching sports, with ancient depictions of ball games dating back into antiquity.

The age of revolutions

Fareed Zakaria’s new book explores how periods of rapid economic and technological change often unleash cultural anxiety and political backlash.

History rhymes

History doesn’t repeat itself so neatly that well-worn historical precedents are always instructive, but much can still be learned from the past, not least in Trump’s willingness to appease Russia by abandoning and butchering Ukraine.

The long shadow of Mussolini

This Monday marks 80 years since Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was killed in an Italian village towards the end of the Second World War in 1945, so what lessons can be learned as authoritarianism returns to dominate the world today?

Miles Franklin’s other brilliant career

Miles Franklin is famous for her book ‘My Brilliant Career’, but what is less well-known is the fact she went undercover for a year as a domestic servant to investigate the working and living conditions of domestic staff.

The Federal experiment

The formation of modern Australia was a striking incarnation of modern social organisation in combining liberal democracy with carefully planned bureaucracy.

After the Holocaust

80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the Holocaust endures as the ultimate historical example of where prejudice, violence and indifference lead.

Celebrating Australia Day

Public support for Australia continues to grow, despite a media campaign to portray it as an imperialist anachronism, as modern Australia is a product of its recent as well as ancient history.

80 years after Auschwitz

On the 80th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz, a new study looks at the different ways the survivors came to terms with the horrors of their ordeal.