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Displaying results 301 to 310 of 368.
Our Unswerving Loyalty »
A documentary survey of relations between the Communist Party of Australia and Moscow, 1920–1940
Edited by: David W. Lovell, Kevin Windle
Publication date: August 2008
The story of the Communist Party of Australia has been told in various ways. Until now, however, archival collections that have borne on this story have been relatively inaccessible to the ordinary, interested reader. This book begins to redress that deficiency by bringing together 85 key documents from the Russian State Archives of Social and Political History (RGASPI), selected from a collection of thousands of documents concerning the relations between the Communist International and the Communist Party of Australia. The selection focuses on the relationship between the CPA and the Comintern because the activities of the CPA are essentially incomprehensible without understanding the international communist context within which the CPA operated. That context was dominated by the newly-created Soviet state and its decision to authorize and utilize a network of communist parties throughout the world.
The documents in this work suggest three major propositions about the relationship between the CPA and the Comintern. First, that the Comintern was crucial in the formation of the CPA, via its emissaries, instructions and authority. Second, that the Comintern played a major role in directing the policies of the CPA in domestic matters (not to mention in international matters, where the Comintern’s decisions were supreme). And third, that the leadership of the CPA was, from 1929 onwards, shaped, trained and authorized by the Comintern. With access to the documents, readers now have a chance not just to hear the voices of the times, but to make their own judgements about the relationship between the CPA and Moscow.
The book also includes two extended introductory essays that outline the development of the Comintern and its relations with the CPA, as well as supporting materials that provide information on individuals, organizations and tactics mentioned within the documents themselves.
Whatever Happened to Frank and Fearless? »
The impact of new public management on the Australian Public Service
Authored by: Kathy MacDermott
Publication date: July 2008
In this evidence-based and closely argued work, Kathy MacDermott plots the changes in the culture of the Australian Public Service that have led many contemporary commentators to lament the purported loss of traditional public service values of impartiality, intellectual rigour and — most importantly — the willingness of public servants at all levels to offer frank and fearless advice to their superiors and their ministers. MacDermott brings to her analysis an insider’s sensibility and a thorough forensic analysis of the impact of some 20 years of relentless administrative ‘reform’ on the values and behaviour of the APS. Although this story has its beginnings in the Hawke-Keating eras, MacDermott convincingly argues that structural and cultural change compromising the integrity of the public service reached its apogee towards the end of the eleven years of the Howard government. This is a ‘must read’ for students of Australian political and administrative history. MacDermott offers cautionary observations that the new national government might do well to heed.
Minding the Gap »
Appraising the promise and performance of regulatory reform in Australia
Authored by: Peter Carroll, Rex Deighton-Smith, Helen Silver, Chris Walker
Publication date: June 2008
‘Mind the Gap!’ is an almost iconic exhortation, originating in the London Underground, warning travellers to be careful when navigating the ‘gap’ between the platform and train. In this volume, Peter Carroll, Rex Deighton-Smith, Helen Silver and Chris Walker retrospectively assess the ‘gap’ — no less dynamic and perilous in a public policy context — between the promise and performance of successive waves of regulation in Australia since the 1980s. Regulatory bodies exist to exercise what might be broadly termed ‘control functions’ and, by nature, tend to be conservative both in their culture and operations. Institutional conservatism does not, of necessity, preclude the exercise of creativity and foresight, both of which are sorely required if government is to successfully meet the challenge of delivering more effective and less costly regulation. The business and policy environment is complex, the risks are great and the rewards of success and the costs of failure will be enormous. The true measure of success will be how effectively we are able to close the gap between promise and performance.
Telling Pacific Lives »
Prisms of Process
Edited by: Brij V. Lal, Vicki Luker
Publication date: June 2008
How are Pacific lives imagined, written and read? How are they refracted through prisms of process? From legends about culture heroes to biographies of national leaders, from tales of ancestors to stories of contemporary men and women, from lives told of both the famous and the nameless, this collection of essays — by historians and anthropologists, Islanders and Island scholars — probes questions of personhood, identity, memory, and time across the sweep of the Pacific, as well as practical issues of research and writing.
Australia Under Construction »
Nation-building past, present and future
Edited by: John Butcher
Publication date: April 2008
The Australian nation is a work in progress. So conclude the authors whose views are represented in this most recent offering in the ANZSOG monograph series, Australia Under Construction: Nation-building past, present and future. From its beginnings as a settler society through to present day concerns about ‘broadbanding the nation’, the nation-building narrative has resonated with Australians. The very idea of nation-building has both excited the popular imagination about what we might achieve as a society and a nation, and has occasioned despair about missed opportunities. The eleven authors contributing to this monograph reflect on these, and other themes from a variety of perspectives. They challenge our understanding of the term ‘nation-building’, reflect on its contemporary relevance as a framework for public policy and even re-appraise the contribution of past ‘iconic’ nation-building endeavours. To this subject the authors bring intelligence, wit and a healthy disdain for sacred cows. A stimulating read for anyone interested in the history, challenges and prospects of nation-building in Australia.
Pedigree and Panache »
A History of the Art Auction in Australia
Authored by: Shireen Huda
Publication date: April 2008
Art auctions have long captured the public imagination. They regularly make news headlines and have become synonymous with glamour, money and social distinction. The marketing of auction houses and the works they sell has resulted in firms attaining authoritative positions and the ability both to influence and reflect collecting tastes. Pedigree and Panache is the first comprehensive history of the art auction in Australia. In this fascinating work, Shireen Huda investigates the construction of the glamorous reputation of art auctions and art auction houses. Featuring absorbing case studies of key art auctions and major art auction houses in Australia (including Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Deutscher-Menzies) the work provides an overview of the origin and international development of art auctions. The development of the Australian marketplace is then explored, detailing colonial inception and continuing until Christie’s withdrawal of its saleroom presence in 2006.
This book is an engaging read for those involved in the art industry, as well as historians, artists, collectors and anyone interested in the art market, art investment, social history and art history.
Signs of the Wali »
Narratives at the Sacred Sites in Pamijahan, West Java
Authored by: Tommy Christomy
Publication date: April 2008
In Signs of the Wali, Dr Tommy Christomy focuses on the one of the early founders of Islam on Java, Shakyh Abdul Muhyi, whose burial site at Pamijahan in Tasikmalaya is a place of contemporary ziarah. This study initially conceived of as a philological exploration of historical manuscripts has been transformed into a study of ‘living manuscripts’ – the contemporary narratives of the custodians at Pamijahan.
As elsewhere in the Islamic world, tarekat and ziarah intersect in popular practice at Pamijahan. Dr Christomy explores this intersecting world, explaining the steps of his own research investigations that enfold as a journey of discovery as he proceeds. This investigation involves the search for traces of Tarekat Shattiriyyah in Pamijahan, given the pervasive presence of Tarekat Qadirriyah-Nashabandiyyah throughout Tasikmalaya. That Tarekat Shattiriyyah survives to this day is itself evidence of the tenacity that its historical roots have established in a particular place.
A Time Bomb Lies Buried »
Fiji’s Road to Independence, 1960-1970
Authored by: Brij V. Lal
Publication date: March 2008
A Time Bomb Lies Buried discusses the debates which took place in Suva and London as well as the politics and processes which led Fiji to independence in 1970 after 96 years of colonial rule. It provides an essential background to understanding the crises and convulsions which have haunted Fiji ever since in its search for a constitutional settlement for its multiethnic population.
Aboriginal History Journal: Volume 32 »
Publication date: 2008
Since 1977, the journal Aboriginal History has pioneered interdisciplinary historical studies of Australian Aboriginal people’s and Torres Strait Islander’s interactions with non-Indigenous peoples. It has promoted publication of Indigenous oral traditions, biographies, languages, archival and bibliographic guides, previously unpublished manuscript accounts, critiques of current events, and research and reviews in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, sociology, linguistics, demography, law, geography and cultural, political and economic history.
Aboriginal History Inc. is a publishing organisation based in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra.
For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.
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Transgressions »
Critical Australian Indigenous histories
Edited by: Ingereth Macfarlane, Mark Hannah
Publication date: December 2007
This volume brings together an innovative set of readings of complex interactions between Australian Aboriginal people and colonisers. The underlying theme is that of ‘transgression’, and Michel Foucault’s account of the necessary dynamic that exists between transgression and limit. We know what constitutes the limit, not by tracing or re-stating the boundaries, but by crossing over them. By exploring the mechanisms by which limits are set and maintained, unexamined cultural assumptions and dominant ideas are illuminated. We see the expectations and the structures that inform and support them revealed, often as they unravel. Such illuminations and revelations are at the core of the Australian Indigenous histories presented in this collection.
For more information on Aboriginal History Inc. please visit aboriginalhistory.org.au.