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"The Routledge Companion to Global Indigenous History" is a comprehensive volume edited by Ann McGrath and Lynette Russell that explores the complexities and diversity of Indigenous history across the globe. The book is organized into six themes, including global perspectives, migrations and mobilities, colonial encounters, removals and diasporas, memory and identity, and future approaches to Indigenous histories. The chapters cover a wide range of topics and regions, highlighting the shared experiences and struggles of Indigenous peoples while also recognizing their unique histories and aspirations. The collection aims to address the omission of Indigenous history from mainstream global accounts and offers valuable insights for the field of history. [Extracted from the article]

The book was published before wage theft scandals reached their current height, but the strategy of casualising and outsourcing the university workforce was far advanced already. In the postwar story, authors Croucher and Waghorne help to puncture the inflated image of Menzies as the patron saint of modern Australian universities. The authors faithfully tell us what the AVCC and its leaders said at each stage, and sometimes suggest what the Vice-Chancellors were doing as a lobby group. [Extracted from the article]

"Failed Ambitions: Kew Cottages and Changing Ideas of Intellectual Disabilities" by Lee-Ann Monk and David Henderson is a comprehensive history of Kew Cottages, an institutional site for individuals with intellectual disabilities in Australia. The book explores the evolution of ideas and treatments surrounding intellectual disabilities from the late nineteenth century to the present day. The authors provide insights into the experiences of inmates, staff, and families, as well as the emergence of community activism and the shift towards community care. While the lack of patient records presents challenges, the book incorporates oral histories and archival documents to offer diverse perspectives on institutional life. Overall, "Failed Ambitions" is a valuable resource for understanding the history of intellectual disabilities in Australia. [Extracted from the article]

"Courting: An Intimate History of Love and the Law" by Alecia Simmonds is a comprehensive and well-researched book that explores the complex relationship between love, intimacy, and the legal system in Australia from 1788 to 1939. The author uses a rich collection of court cases involving breach of promise to reveal the social and emotional dynamics of the time. The book highlights the patriarchal nature of society, where women often bore the consequences of broken promises, and examines the diverse range of individuals involved in these cases. Simmonds also raises questions about the role of the law in addressing contemporary issues of love and relationships. [Extracted from the article]

"Writing Australian History On-Screen: Television and Film Period Dramas 'Down Under' edited by Jo Parnell and Julie Anne Taddeo is a collection of essays that explore Australian history through period productions from the 1960s to the 2010s. The essays examine key moments and mythologies of Australian history, highlighting their relevance to contemporary Australia. The collection also explores the ethical, political, and social impact of production context on the representations of periods, characters, events, and archetypes. The book offers valuable insights for students of history and sociology, providing extensions and revisions of familiar tropes, movements, and mythologies." [Extracted from the article]

"Life So Full of Promise: Further Biographies of Australia's Lost Generation" by Ross McMullin is a sequel to his acclaimed book "Farewell Dear People." The book focuses on the lives of three young Australians who were part of the 'lost generation' of World War I. Captain Brian Pockley, Norman Callaway, and Murdoch Mackay are profiled in the book, highlighting their pre-war potential, their war experiences, and the impact of their deaths on their families and communities. McMullin's writing is sympathetic and well-researched, providing insight into the emotional connections between the soldiers and their loved ones. The book raises questions about the worth of the war and the loss of talented young men. [Extracted from the article]

"Revealing Secrets: An Unofficial History of Australian Signals Intelligence and the Advent of Cyber" by John Blaxland and Clare Birgin is a book that explores the history of Australian signals intelligence and surveillance technology. The authors aim to shed light on the role of signals intelligence in Australian history, which has often been hidden due to its secretive nature. The book covers various topics, including the origins of cryptology, the development of radio signals, and the contributions of signals intelligence during World War I and II. However, the post-1945 chapters are based on publicly available material, indicating a lack of cooperation from the Australian Signals Directorate. The book also addresses themes such as technological advancements, Australia's relationship with the US and UK, and the growing demand for accountability in intelligence agencies. [Extracted from the article]

I Visions of Nature i focuses on landscape photography produced in settler colonies of the Pacific Rim and employs an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on methodologies and theories from environmental history, geography, and art history. Both artists have appropriated imagery made by settler artists of their respective homelands to interrogate how settler visual culture took "land away from people". Visions of Nature: How Landscape Photography Shaped Settler Colonialism AND Colonization, Wilderness and Spaces Between: Nineteenth Century Landscape Painting in Australia and the United States: By Jarrod Hore. [Extracted from the article]

The nineteenth century witnessed the creation of a 'paper Panopticon' designed to capture information about offenders in England, especially those who were transported to Australia. This article considers the effectiveness of this new record-keeping system and asks whether convicts had some agency within it. These questions are explored through a macroscopic analysis of the recording of convict ages in nineteenth-century England and Australia, made possible by the Digital Panopticon project. By using the methodological opportunities opened up by digital technologies, we can test the accuracy of historical records in new ways, and in the process develop a better understanding of the encounter between state authority and convict agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Holocaust and Australia: Refugees, Rejection, and Memory" by Paul Bartrop is a book that explores Australia's relationship to the Holocaust. The author discusses Australian governmental policy, the influence of Britain, and the public's view of Jewry during the war years. While the book provides valuable insights, the reviewer notes that it is largely a revised edition of Bartrop's previous work from 1994, with some new material added. The reviewer suggests that the book could have delved deeper into the coverage of the Holocaust by other Australian newspapers and analyzed the attitudes of different states and territories. The final chapters cover the post-1945 period but are considered brief and lacking in depth. The reviewer also questions the book's omission of the Helen Demidenko scandal and the fabrication of Holocaust-related testimony in other Australian works, and raises important questions about Australia's refugee acceptance policies in the face of genocidal horror. Overall, the book is praised for its readability and as a valuable resource for students. [Extracted from the article]

"Taking to the Field: A History of Australian Women in Science" by Jane Carey is a newly published book that explores the contributions and challenges faced by women scientists in Australia. The book aims to counter the perception that science is hostile to women by highlighting the numerous talented and dedicated women who made significant scientific contributions in the first half of the twentieth century. However, the book also reveals the systematic marginalization of women in science after World War II, showing that progress for women in the field was not linear. The book focuses on the career structure of the women scientists discussed and emphasizes the need for further research on the postwar period to understand the dynamics of women's participation in science. Overall, the book provides a valuable contribution to the history of women in science and serves as a celebration of their achievements and a warning against potential setbacks in the future. [Extracted from the article]

This book review discusses "Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country" by Ryan Cropp. The book explores the life and work of Donald Horne, a prolific writer and thinker in Australia. It covers his early years as a student and journalist, his time in England, and his influential role in Australian media. The review praises the book for its thorough research and well-written narrative, highlighting Horne's intellectual journey from conservatism to liberalism. Overall, it is described as a high-quality biography of an important figure in Australian history. [Extracted from the article]

The book "Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia" edited by Evan Smith, Jayne Persian, and Vashti Jane Fox sheds light on the often overlooked topic of Australian right-wing radicalism. The book explores the historical context and various individuals, groups, and movements within the radical right in Australia. It also examines the relationship between the political mainstream and the radical right, as well as the opposition faced by anti-fascists. While the book has some imbalances and omissions, it offers important observations that can contribute to future research and debate on the subject. The book also addresses the tension between scholarship and activism, and the question of whether the Australian radical right is endogenous or influenced by international factors. Overall, the book provides valuable insights and should be read to stimulate further discussion and research. [Extracted from the article]

"A History of Crime in Australia: Australian Underworlds" by Nancy Cushing is an introductory text for students of crime history and criminology. The book explores the impact of English law on transported convicts and First Nations peoples in Australia, and how their own systems of law were disregarded by colonists. It is organized into twelve chapters, each focusing on a specific aspect of crime history in Australia. The book includes essays by historians in each chapter, providing examples of scholarly writing. While the book primarily focuses on the legal history of New South Wales and Victoria, it offers thought-provoking case studies and is accessible to both students and general readers interested in crime history. [Extracted from the article]

The book "British India, White Australia: Overseas Indians, Intercolonial Relations and the Empire" by Kama Maclean explores the historical relationship between Australia, India, and Britain in the post-Federation era. The author examines how the White Australia Policy influenced and was influenced by racial constructs, Australian self-interest, and British pragmatism. Drawing on archival resources from India, Australia, and the UK, the book provides a pre-history of the current bilateral relationship between Australia and India. It also highlights alternative viewpoints and counter-narratives of agency and equality, shedding light on the experiences of the Indian diaspora in Australia. [Extracted from the article]

Gibson poses a more serious challenge to the one-dimensional view of Chinese workers as "cheap labour" or a "coolie class" threatening "White workers" (see chapter three, "Workers"). In I Made in Chinatown i , Peter Gibson sets out how the history of Chinese furniture-makers and factories in Sydney and Melbourne subverted the White Australia Policy and the racist logic that underpinned it. Made in Chinatown: Chinese Australian Furniture Factories, 1880-1930: By Peter Charles Gibson. [Extracted from the article]

Unfree Workers: Insubordination and Resistance in Convict Australia, 1788-1860 AND Convict: A Global History: Unfree Workers: Insubordination and Resistance in Convict Australia, 1788-1860. While Maxwell-Stewart and Quinlan's central focus is on convict agency, Anderson also examines how convicts created new religious and social formations, and became vectors of insurgency. They note that Australian convicts represented only 45 per cent of those transported by the British between 1919 and 1939, and convicts were often interchangeable with other forms of unfree workers - serving alongside slaves and indentured servants. [Extracted from the article]

A Narrative of Denial: Australia and the Indonesian Violation of East Timor: By Peter Job. Job doesn't find that Australian interest in gaining access to oil and gas under the Timor seabed was decisive in dealings with Indonesian governments. But Job is also well-placed to continue the story should he be inclined: continuing from 1983 up to the Australian-led Interfet intervention of 1999-2000 to restore peace in East Timor, which I suspect many readers of this book would welcome. [Extracted from the article]

A Trip to the Dominions: The Scientific Event That Changed Australia: Edited by Lynette Russell. In July 1914 a large delegation from the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) disembarked at Fremantle to attend a BAAS annual congress in Australia, the remotest of imperial outposts. Boucher is interested in settlers' reactions to frontier violence in the mid-nineteenth century and offers some thoughtful reflections about the interface between amateur anthropology and settler colonialism. [Extracted from the article]

"Asbestos in Australia: From Boom to Dust" is a comprehensive and highly readable edited volume that explores the intersection of environment, industry, and public health in Australian life. The book synthesizes diverse literatures on asbestos in Australia, providing an overview of its business, economic, and social history from its rise as a "miracle mineral" in the late nineteenth century to its decline in the face of mounting medical evidence and public outcry. The collection includes historical, legal, and medical perspectives, as well as oral histories from communities affected by asbestos mining. It serves as a valuable reference work and highlights the ongoing challenges posed by industrial pollutants in Australia. [Extracted from the article]

"Cruel Care: A History of Children at Our Borders" by Jordana Silverstein is a powerful examination of Australia's immigration policies and their impact on children. The book challenges the prevailing reasoning behind mandatory detention for asylum-seekers and argues that the system is rooted in colonial control. Silverstein analyzes the emotional rhetoric surrounding children and how it has been used to justify harsh policies. The book also explores issues such as the best interests of the child, manufactured crises for political gain, and the unique Australian program of indefinite offshore detention. Silverstein's work is well-researched and thought-provoking, offering valuable insights for readers with diverse perspectives. [Extracted from the article]

Over the course of the following chapters, Spencer charts the inability of Britain to corral its Pacific dominions into a fully functioning empire-wide air defence program during the 1920s. For example, the introductory chapters of the Australian and New Zealand official histories of air power in World War II examined their military aviation history largely through nationalist lenses, with a view to explaining their respective nations' war preparedness. British Imperial Air Power: The Royal Air Forces and the Defense of Australia and New Zealand between the World Wars: By Alex M. Spencer. [Extracted from the article]

Writing from the "imperial side of the frontier of empire", Price seeks out "echoes" of Indigeneity through their traces in imperial archives (2-3). Their stories provide examples of Price's framing narrative of imperialist humanitarian hopes denied, a narrative that skilfully weaves together trajectories from both New Zealand and the Australian colonies. Social historian Richard Price's previous book, I Making Empire i , provided a nuanced reading of nineteenth-century encounters between British missionaries and officials and their Xhosa interlocutors in South Africa. [Extracted from the article]

Like Beresford, Hamilton and Kells have expertise in public policy, and their book details the evolution of Australia's contemporary water policy to the present day. While Beresford offers an overview of water trading, here Hamilton and Kells go deep. The Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) traverses the lands of forty Aboriginal nations, all four eastern Australian states and an area larger than France. [Extracted from the article]

During those months, Caroline asserted, Edward "fell under the influence of his brother, Mr. William Kearney". Caroline, at age nineteen, married Irish-born Catholic Edward Kearney in 1853. Bettina Bradbury explores this question through a close examination of the extraordinary plight of English-born Protestant Caroline Bax. [Extracted from the article]

Ceremony Men: Making Ethnography and the Return of the Strehlow Collection: By Jason M. Gibson. The collection in question in Gibson's study is that assembled by linguist and ethnographer T.G.H. ("Ted") Strehlow, now housed at the purpose-built Strehlow Research Centre in Alice Springs. This brings me to the second innovation that Gibson makes in approaching Strehlow's archive: his decision to focus on the work that Strehlow did with the Anmatyerr. [Extracted from the article]

Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia: By Frank Bongiorno. In this new context, a "political history" of official institutions seemed hopelessly old-fashioned, while a more adventurous "political history", beyond formal institutions, seemed impossibly ambitious: if "politics" and power were everywhere, was not a "political history" a history of everything? It is Frank Bongiorno's achievement in I Dreamers and Schemers i to demonstrate the continuing possibility and the great value of a political history of Australia. [Extracted from the article]

Payne argues that the pain of Aboriginal mothers who lost their children through state child removal policies has not been recognised, not least because the subject was too painful for mothers to speak about. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Payne tells us, was regarded by some of its critics as 'an ideological advertising campaign for the ANC's version of the past'. Here Roach imagines Beverley Whyman talking for the first time on the phone to her son Russell in a Florida jail awaiting his trial for murder and rape. [Extracted from the article]

In this welcome monograph, Felicity Barnes expands our understanding of the marketing and commodity culture that tied the dominions and the metropole together in the interwar period especially. Selling Britishness: Commodity Culture, the Dominions and Empire: By Felicity Barnes. Perhaps Barnes' largest point of argument is that, while ostensibly dominion marketing was intended to boost Canada, Australia and New Zealand's economies and thus their national autonomy, it worked to build a shared Britishness. [Extracted from the article]

Science, Museums and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Australia: By Paul Turnbull. The book's structure is chronological but has a focus on what Turnbull calls "the long nineteenth century" (14) when the collection of Indigenous remains was guided by often changing theoretical and intellectual interests. According to Turnbull, these activities resulted in the remains of approximately 6,000 Indigenous Australians being collected and sent to scientific institutions, first overseas and then to domestic museums. [Extracted from the article]

Cotton explains the position of the Commonwealth nations in the League, Australia's membership, the mandates system, and the League's social, economic, and security interventions. Cotton seeks to forge this path by following the lives "of a diverse but at the same time untypical group of Australians" who worked at Geneva with the League or the International Labour Organisation (ILO). These interwar transformations are the focus of Cotton's book, which aims 'to carry the revolution in League studies further into Australian historical inquiry' (3). [Extracted from the article]

In summary I applaud the authors for their research and writing, and for presenting the often confronting schism that occurred between the First Nations and the colonisers within the western third of the continent. Mokare was to share this same strong bond with Barker's successor, medical officer Alexander Collie, whose friendship was so strong that he requested to be buried next to Mokare upon his death. Charting Two Cultures: First Nations and Europeans in Western Australia: By Bill and Jenny Bunbury. [Extracted from the article]

This is the biography of a failed entrepreneur - C.J. (Jack) DeGaris, a household name in the early 1920s and now largely forgotten. Not mentioned by Nichols is the government's commitment to other soldier settlement schemes, in the wheatbelt and in the southwest, where the infamous Group Settlement scheme was supported by the British government. The Alert Grey Twinkling Eyes of C.J. DeGaris: By David Nichols. [Extracted from the article]

In his compelling biography, I Idling in Green Places i , Russell McGregor captures Chisholm's fervent love for a natural world which was, to him, joyful and interactive. Idling in Green Places: A Life of Alec Chisholm: By Russell McGregor. In contrast to these "stodgy scientists", Chisholm depicted birds as perfectly capable of "purposeless pleasure", "bird-games" and "zest for life" (106). [Extracted from the article]

Isobelle Barrett Meyering's I Feminism and the Making of a Child Rights Revolution 1969-1979 i makes plain that feminism takes seriously the rights of children and especially girls, and also that feminism has never been a project led exclusively by white women. I Feminism and the Making of a Child Rights Revolution 1969-1979 i presents a rich and expansive account of the entwined movements of feminism and child rights on this continent we now call Australia. An account of a ten-year-old schoolgirl's participation in a conference captures how feminist concern with girls is expressed as concern for the I women they are expected to become. i It is significant that the "child" of central interest to the feminist movement appears as a girl not a boy, let alone a trans or non-binary child. [Extracted from the article]

Four Years in a Red Coat: The Loveday Internment Camp Diary of Miyakatsu Koike: By Miyakatsu Koike. Just to grasp Koike's mobility during the war demands that we explore an international node between Japan, Australia, and the Dutch East Indies. Instead he was transferred to Australia in a "hell" ship, I Cremer i , by an agreement with the Dutch East Indies government to transfer internees to Australia. [Extracted from the article]

Soldiers and Aliens: Men in the Australian Army's Employment Companies during World War II.: By June Factor. To be sure, wartime necessity rather than noble sentiment dictated the Australian Army's incorporation of "aliens" into the employment companies, but eventually most of these men were treated with decency and respect. During World War II, the Australian Army raised thirty-eight employment companies for service on the home front. [Extracted from the article]

Irving has done an excellent job in describing Childe's political journey and mapping it onto his prehistoric archaeological scholarship in a way that enhances both. While many of Childe's specific proposals about European history have either been amended or have evolved to the point where he no longer remains a touchstone, European archaeology still operates in the framework largely created by Childe's grand syntheses. After this Childe found work as private secretary to John Storey, NSW Labor member for Balmain, first in opposition and then in government, Storey becoming Premier in 1920. [Extracted from the article]

In terms of biographical detail, the story the authors tell about Vandemonian Aboriginal leader Tongerlongeter hinges on a handful of recorded moments in an under-documented life. Tongerlongeter: First Nations Leader and Tasmanian War Hero.: By Henry Reynolds and Nicholas Clements. Clements contextualises Tongerlongeter's story in terms that build on his own doctoral work (supervised by Reynolds) and extend a long tradition of Tasmanian historical writing wherein ethnographical enquiry infuses narrative history. [Extracted from the article]

The variety of contributions in I Fragments i point to how we might yet substantially revise current understandings of New Zealand's colonial conflict and its memories. This "fragmented" but exciting collection is useful as a short accessible text for Australian scholars wanting to understand shifts in New Zealand's commemoration of colonial conflict. Kidman pitches a larger context of colonial conflict and its legacy in an opening chapter on the 250th commemoration of Captain Cook in 2019, conveyed beautifully in an ethnographic mode. [Extracted from the article]

Hobby respectfully challenges Prichard's self-fashioning, aiming to "strip back mythology" (384). This book derives from Hobby's 2019 PhD on the early life of Prichard at the University of Western Australia. Hobby shows that Prichard also refracted elements of her own life in the children's novel I The Wild Oats of Han i (1928). [Extracted from the article]

Cassandra Pybus' biography is a beautifully written attempt to rescue Truganini from the enormous condescension of colonial posterity. Pybus believes nonetheless that she can rescue Truganini from this suffocation, noting that even in Robinson's diaries it is possible to see that she always refused to be a "passive victim" (xviii). As well as attempting to recover Truganini herself, Pybus is at pains to reanimate many Aboriginal Tasmanian figures who are sometimes written out of the story of British destruction. [Extracted from the article]

Reclaiming the Urban Commons: The Past, Present and Future of Food Growing in Australian Towns and Cities: Edited by Nick Rose and Andrea Gaynor. Extends the discussion historically with its fine chapters by Gaynor (see also her book), Clay, and Kunek and Shone, and the conclusion by Rose. Significantly, I Reclaiming the Urban Commons i points to the structural and political problems that frame food resilience. [Extracted from the article]

McIntyre traces how the particular set of strategies and techniques he terms "obstructive direct action" emerged, diffused and were refined and developed in three national contexts - Australia, the USA, and Canada - from 1979 to 1990. Environmental Blockades: Obstructive Direct Action and the History of the Environmental Movement: By Iain McIntyre. McIntyre reveals that Australia has punched above its weight in the world of obstructive direct action, with Australian blockades proving both inspirational and instructive for later North American protesters. [Extracted from the article]

Good for the Soul: John Curtin's Life with Poetry: By Toby Davidson. Although the sources for this argument are less plentiful than those made in relation to Curtin's political career, Davidson traces the importance of poetry at key points of Curtin's life. Davidson shows that poetic allusions were not uncommon in 1940s political rhetoric, that Curtin fostered the publication of poetry, and that many citizens responded to his wartime speeches by sending him their own poems. [Extracted from the article]

Economic historians researching other countries, Australian economic historians employed outside Australia (but retaining links with home), and well-known non-Australian economic historians, who spent some of their careers in Australia, are afforded comparatively little attention. I Australian Economic History i is very much an appeal to universities and policy-makers - not to mention historians and economists - to recognise the role that economic history can play in solving the big challenges of our time. A somewhat peculiar dimension of Wright's account is its emphasis on Australian-based economic historians working primarily on Australian economic history. [Extracted from the article]

Having Haddon's personal journey sitting alongside the "scientific" aspects of his research provides a contextualised and balanced view of his Torres Strait experiences. Recording Kastom: Alfred Haddon's Journals from the Torres Strait and New Guinea, 1888 and 1898: Edited by Anita Herle and Jude Philp, in association with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge. I Recording Kastom i presents the transcribed journals of anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon, written during two visits to the Torres Strait region in the late nineteenth century. [Extracted from the article]

Remembering Bishop Hale: Edited by Jane Lydon. Their discoverer was Sophie Hale and the books were diaries of her great-grandfather: the missionary and colonial bishop, Mathew Blagden Hale. The volume is especially valuable for the way it draws together perspectives from church historians with university historians to reveal the nuances of the religious dynamics of Hale's colonial and imperial worlds. [Extracted from the article]