Robert Manne

Are we living on borrowed time? From climate change to the Murdoch empire, from refugees to WikiLeaks –Robert Manne applies his brilliant mind to the issues and people that shape our world. This provocative and informative book includes essays on Donald Trump’s links to Russia, Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership, the ideas driving Islamic State, and Jonathan Franzen’s views on climate activism. In the title essay, Manne shares a life-altering personal story that is frank, moving and unforgettable. Robert Manne is emeritus professor of politics at La Trobe University. His books include The Petrov Affair, The Culture of Forgetting, Left, Right, Left, Making Trouble and The Mind of the Islamic State. He has written three Quarterly Essays and is a regular contributor to the Monthly and the Guardian.

On Borrowed Time

In December 2002, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One by Keith Windschuttle was published. It argued that violence between whites and Aborigines in colonial Tasmania had been vastly exaggerated and sought to rewrite one of the most troubling parts of Australian history. The book soon attracted widespread coverage, including both high praise and heated critcism. Until now, Windschuttle's arguments have not been comprehensively examined. Whitewash collects some of Australia's leading writers on Aboriginal history to do just this. The result provides not only a demolition of Windschuttle's revisionism but also a vivid and illuminating history of one of the most famous and tragic episodes in the history of the British Empire - the dispossession of the Tasmanian Aborigines. Contributors include: James Boyce, Martin Krygier, Robert van Krieken, Henry Reynolds, Shayne Breen, Marilyn Lake, Greg Lehman, Neville Green, Cathie Clement, Peggy Patrick, Phillip Tardif, David Hansen, Lyndall Ryan, Cassandra Pybus, Ian McFarlane, Mark Finnane, Tim Murray, Christine Williamson, A. Dirk Moses and Robert Manne.

On Keith Windschuttle’s Fabrication of Aboriginal History

Whitewash

‘Some essays in this collection plunged me into thought. Some caused me to weep. Some brought tears of laughter. Some essays won me over by the power of their imagination. Some by their analytic clarity. Some by their excruciating honesty. Some by the pain of things past or present faced without flinching.’ – Robert Manne In The Best Australian Essays 2014, Robert Manne assembles his picks of contemporary non-fiction writing. Tim Winton reflects on the impact of landscape on the Australian character; Helen Garner remembers her mother with a raw and stirring poignancy; Christos Tsiolkas wonders how the Left forgot their origins; Tim Flannery traces the history of the Great Barrier Reef and fears its destruction. With essays traversing madness, liberty under the rule of Tony Abbott, the enslaving of horses and the legacy of Doris Lessing, this sharp collection offers lucid insight, shrewd understanding and heartbreaking empathy. Moreno Giovannoni • Rozanna Lilley • Caroline Baum • Guy Rundle • Peter Conrad • Jessie Cole • Karen Hitchcock • Antonia Hayes • Luke Ryan • Helen Garner • Sybille Smith • Christian Ryan • Dennis Glover • Don Watson • Rachel Nolan • David Marr • J.M. Coetzee • Nicolas Rothwell • David Malouf • Clive James • Carrie Tiffany • Robyn Davidson • Neil Murray • Noel Pearson • Christos Tsiolkas • Luke Mogelson • Tim Flannery • Tim Winton

The Best Australian Essays 2014

David McKnight

This book explores the global financial crisis, its social implications and its potential outcomes for Australia. It examines neo-liberalism and economic rationalism, and discusses their consequences. After the GFC, how might we rethink the challenge of climate change, of care, of quality of life more generally? What is the proper role of the market? What parts of the social fabric need to be mended to create a more sustainable, fairer Australia? Contributors: Kevin Rudd, Robert Manne, Jean Curthoys, John Quiggin, Michael Pusey, Anne Manne, David McKnight, Ian Lowe, Guy Pearse.

On the Failure of Neo-Liberalism and the Urgency of Chance

Goodbye to All That

There are few original ideas in politics. In the creation of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange was responsible for one. This essay reveals the making of Julian Assange – both his ideas and his world-changing actions. Robert Manne explores Assange's unruly childhood and then his involvement with the revolutionary cypherpunk underground, all the way through to the creation of WikiLeaks. Pulling together the threads of his development, Manne shows how Assange became one of the most influential Australians of our time.

On Julian Assange

Cypherpunk Revolutionary

There are few original ideas in politics. In the creation of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange was responsible for one. This essay reveals the making of Julian Assange - both his ideas and his world-changing actions. Robert Manne explores Assange's unruly childhood and then his involvement with the revolutionary cypherpunk underground, all the way through to the creation of WikiLeaks. Pulling together the threads of his development, Manne shows how Assange became one of the most influential Australians of our time.

Anyone who has read one of Robert Manne's newspaper columns or one of his powerful Quarterly Essays will find here a treasure-house of thought, argument and evocation. The perfect book for anyone interested in the key political and cultural controversies of the past thirty years.

Political Essays, 1977-2005

Left Right Left

At a time when the Howard government has radically narrowed the national vision, the mainstream media has failed to notice or to hold it to account.Do Not Disturboffers diverse and enlightening explanations for this failure. Featuring an array of independent insiders, including: Eric Beecher, Guy Rundle, Jon Faine, Margaret Simons, David Marr, plus many more.

Is the Media Failing Australia?

Do Not Disturb

Award-winning Australian intellectual Robert Manne presents an incisive analysis of the historical background and current ideology that motivates ISIS and their quest for domination in the Middle East and beyond. In the ongoing conflict with ISIS, military observers and regional experts have noted that it is just as important to understand its motivating ideology as to win battles on the ground. This book traces the evolution of this ideology from its origins in the prison writings of the revolutionary jihadist Sayyid Qutb, through the thinking of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, who planned the 9/11 terrorist attack, to today's incendiary screeds that motivate terrorism via the Internet. Chief among these recent texts are two documents that provide the foundation for ISIS terrorism. One is called The Management of Savagery, essentially a handbook for creating mayhem through acts of violence. The other is the online magazine of horror called Dabiq, which combines theological justifications with ultraviolent means, apocalyptic dreams, and genocidal ambitions. Professor Manne provides close, original, and lucid readings of these important documents. He introduces readers to a strange, cruel, but internally coherent and consistent political ideology, which has now entered the minds of very large numbers of radicalized Muslims in the Middle East, North Africa, and the West. However disturbing and unsettling, this book is essential reading for anyone concerned about terrorist violence.

Robert Manne

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