The story of a fifty-year relationship between a Vietnam veteran and a remote Aboriginal tribe: a miniature epic of human adaptation, suffering and resilience.The Passion of Private White describes the meeting of two worlds: the world of the fiercely driven biologist and anthropologist Neville White, and the world of the hunter-gatherer clans of remote northern Australia he studied and lived with. As White tried to understand the world as it was understood on the other sid...

This study of British amateur theatre in the inter-war period examines five different but interwoven examples of the belief, common in theatrical and educational circles at the time, that amateur drama had a purpose beyond recreation.Amateur theatre was at the height of its popularity as a cultural practice between the wars, so that by 1939 more British people had practical experience of putting on plays than at any time before or since.Providing an origina...

While most Australians live in cities clinging to the coastal fringe, our sense of what an Australian is, or should be, is drawn from the vast and varied inland called the bush. But what do we mean by 'the bush', and how has it shaped us? Starting with his forebears' battle to drive back nature and eke a living from the land, Don Watson explores the bush as it was and as it now is: the triumphs and the ruination, the commonplace and the bizarre, the stories we like to tell about ourselves ...

Don Watson takes us on a journey of indignation and how it has been expressed in his forebears. His ire towards US politicians has a new moving target: Donald Trump. The US President's primary pitch had less to do with giving people money or security than it was about vengeance. Trump exploited the anger we feel when we are slighted or taken for granted, turning the politics of a sophisticated democracy into something more like a blood feud. He promised to restore their dignity, slay their...

Is the United States disintegrating?Don Watson offers a report from the United States that catches the madness and theatre of an election like no other.This is a historically informed, mordant account of Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and a country approaching democratic high noon. From Los Angeles to New York, from Detroit to Kalamazoo, Watson observes America in all its diversity and conflict, reality and unreality. Above all, he sees the threat posed by Trump and his moveme...

No other writer has journeyed further into the soul of Australia and returned to tell the taleWatsonia collects the fruits of a writing life. It covers everything from Australian bush humour to America gone berserk; from Don Bradman to Oscar Wilde; from Animal Farm to the Australian parliament. Wherever Watson turns his incisive gaze, the results are as illuminating as they are enjoyable.Artfully arranged, Watsonia showcases the m...

Corrosive, mad and frequently fatal, indignation is a great destructive force in human affairs, and just as often a wellspring of mirth and merriment. Don Watson traces this seemingly ineradicable emotion in a journey that takes us, via his forebears, Flaubert and The Sopranos, from the Old Testament to Donald Trump.Trump's pitch had less to do with offering voters money and security than with offering them vengeance. He exploited the anger we feel when we are slighted or ...

In Rabbit Syndrome Don Watson takes an analytical look at the ways in which the Australian imagination has always been dominated by America.Why are they so much better than we are? Even when it comes to producing books like the Updike "Rabbit" sequence that tell us what we are like? Why are they also a land of executioners who have nevertheless created the least bad empire the world has seen? Can we really expect to be deputies to America? And what about...

‘When you write speeches for other people for a living, any audience is a good audience. I address walls and poultry: I stand on a wheelbarrow and give after-dinner speeches as the moon rises over the fowl yard. I say, Eight and a half generations of you fowls I have known. The chooks treat it as a diversion, of course. They get on with the main game. They are pragmatists. Why change it if it works, they reckon, and tilt their heads back and let the water run down their throats.’ – Don Wat...

A magnificent new history of the USA from independence to Trump 2.0'Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...' In the 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson's unalienable rights have often been thwarted by slavery, war and economic crisis. Yet if today the USA does not always seem to be the shining city on a hill dreamed of by so many, it is unquestionably the world's most powerful nation – a source both of fear and wonder, ...

"Indians of the Mesa Verde" by Don Watson offers a profound exploration of the ancient Puebloan culture that thrived in the Mesa Verde region of Colorado. The book delves into the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans, detailing their architectural achievements, social structures, and spiritual beliefs. Watson's vivid descriptions and thorough research bring to life the intricate cliff dwellings and the rich history of the people who inhabited this unique landscape. Readers gain insight into th...

From revolution to civil rights, Old Hollywood to the Space Age—the extraordinary story of a nation that contains multitudes"A masterpiece of concision and analysis. Every American should read it."—Judith Thurman, National Book Award–winning writer at the New YorkerWhen Britain's thirteen American colonies declared their independence on July 4, 1776, the United States of America was born. It became...