Is economics a science? This distinguished and provocative book calls into question the increasing tendency of economists to attach themselves to the coat-tails of the scientists. Thus it is not concerned with the scientific method in economics, but with the relation of scientific method to economic method, of scientific explanation to economic explanation; for to discover the cause of a phenomenon or of an event is to explain it.

The first part of the book reviews the development of regional planning authorities and policies in New South Wales and Victoria since 1944, with respect to the regional components of statutory planning and policies concerned with decentralisation, regional growth centres, system cities and satellite towns. The involvement of the Commonwealth Government in the field of regional planning is also examined. The second part of the book discusses the Albury- Wodonga growth centre, which was instituted as a joint Commonwealth-State project in 1973.

The Handbook of Australian Government and Politics 1975-1984 is a sequel to two earlier volumes published in 1968 and 1977 and covering the years 1890-1964 and 1965-1974 respectively. Both have become standard research tools for Australian historians and political scientists. The present volume follows the same format - cabinet and portfolio lists, then voting information for each election between 1975 and 1984. However it adds information on Legislative Council elections over the period, not included in the earlier volumes.

There are moments when I know just how that coelacanth felt when the African fisherman dragged her up into a power boat. This book is an attempt to present the activities and motivations of a generation whose writings are fossilised in archives. I hoped, because I was influenced by that generation, that I could interpret their efforts in such a way that people here and now would at least sympathise with their strivings even though they believe them to be misguided. That is what I have been telling myself anyway.

What kind of people lived in Scotland in the Middle Ages? The author has some surprising answers to this question, one of the many he found himself contemplating when he decided to look into the background of 'The Tretis of the Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo' by the fifteenth century Scottish poet, William Dunbar. The poem concerns three lovely women, discovered conversing in a grove on Midsummer Eve. Two are dissatisfied with their husbands, the third dispenses outspoken advice on the way sensible women should regard the institution of marriage.