McMillan-Webster likes word play and the occasional pun. At the AGHS conference in Ipswich, she used a double entendre: ‘A date with history’ to introduce… Read More »Fiona McMillan-Webster, The Age of Seeds, Thames and Hudson, 2022
David Reeve, To Remain Myself, the History of Onghokham, Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with NUS Press, 2022 ‘I also saw myself in… Read More »Biography of an Indonesian historian…and much more
Here is my review of Lessons from history: leading historians tackle Australia’s greatest challenges, eds. Carolyn Holbrook, Lyndon Megarrity, David Lowe, UNSW Press, 2022 The… Read More »History and policy
POSTED 30 JANUARY 2022 Here in Bundanoon, summer has been elusive. The sun has had to compete with mist and rain; weeds are the happiest plants… Read More »Summer reading: novels about plants
I can’t imagine the old normal returning unaltered after COVID-19 but worry that the rush towards a new normal will entail too much focus on growth and profits and not enough on caring for the vulnerable and the environment. If that happens, we will have squandered an opportunity to reset how we value health, work and leisure.
Anthropologist James Suzman has written a history of work that gives us plenty to consider as we navigate our way out of the pandemic towards that new normal. Here’s my review (which first appeared in The Weekend Australian 19-20 September) of Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time, published by Bloomsbury.Read More »Will we ever be satisfied with less?
Some people say a visit to Antarctica changed their life. I don’t but months after my trip the other-worldly beauty of the seventh continent is still with me and I am still grappling with how to put the experience into words. Someone who managed to capture the spirit of the place, long before the I-phone and cruise ships made it easy to photograph penguins and icebergs, was Frank Hurley.
Read More »Capturing AntarcticaAristotle identified three elements in the art of rhetoric: ethos (authority or evidence); pathos (the emotional hook, one might say); and logos (a logical argument).… Read More »Evidence versus emotion