The Little Moscows came to public attention during the 1920s as industrial localities noteworthy for political and industrial militancy. In such places, the working class displayed unusual determination to improve wages and conditions. Originally published in 1980, the book discusses the experience of three Little Moscows: Mardy in South Wales, Lumphinnans in Fife, and the Vale of Leven in the West of Scotland. Comparative analysis of various aspects of local life is also covered: work and...

Stuart Macintyre, one of Australia's most highly regarded historians, revisits A Concise History of Australia to provoke readers to reconsider Australia's past and its relationship to the present. Integrating new scholarship with the historical record, the fifth edition of A Concise History of Australia brings together the long narrative of Australia's First Nations' peoples; the arrival of Europeans and the era of colonies, convicts, gold and free settlers; the foundation of a nation stat...

The only large-scale comprehensive account of an intriguing part of Australia's past.In 1920, 26 men and women met in a dingy hall in Sydney to create a new political party. They expected the overthrow of capitalism and the emancipation of humanity - here, and all around the world.Two decades later, when Australia joined the Second World War, the Commonwealth government suppressed the Communist Party of Australia. The handful of idealists and dissidents had...

The long awaited second volume in Stuart Macintyre's definitive history of the Communist Party of Australia.Communism was unlike any other political movement Australia has ever seen. At its peak in the 1940s, unions led by communists could call a strike that paralysed the nation, and communists influenced the highest level of government, and commanded the unswerving loyalty of thousands. It showed working men and women they could have a better life, and gave them t...

What is a fair wage? Is there a right to work? Is there a right to shelter or to good health? What are the entitlements of those who cannot work? Can opportunities be equal? For women? For Aborigines?For more than a century, Australians have addressed expectations of social justice to their governments and have had to live with the consequences.This book looks at how changing circumstances have generated changing popular aspirations, and how these in turn have been translat...

Civil liberties are central to the freedoms that Australians value. They affirm the rights of all to protection from arbitrary authority and enable minorities to flourish; but they have also frequently been disputed. From arguments over censorship in the 1930s to present-day debates on mandatory sentencing, the concept of civil liberties – and its impact on our everyday lives – is a recurring motif of public life. Liberty is packed with new insights into the way civil liberties ha...

Geoffrey Bolton was the most versatile and widely travelled of his generation of Australian historians. As a scholar, teacher and commentator he enriched understanding of the country's regional mosaic, some of its notable figures and others who were just as revealing, the natural environment, social patterns and political life. He was also unflagging in his encouragement of others. The contributors to this volume take his work as a departure point for original essays on a variety of themes...

The bestselling author of The Australian Moment asks the most important question confronting the country right now – how do we maintain our winning streak?Most nations don't get a first chance to prosper. Australia is on its second. For the best part of the nineteenth century, Australia was the world's richest country, a pioneer for democracy and a magnet for migrants. Yet our last big boom was followed by a fifty-year bust as we lost our luck, our riches a...

A ground-breaking history of the twentieth century in Ireland, written on the most ambitious scale by a brilliant young historian.It is significant that it begins in 1900 and ends in 2000 - most accounts have begun in 1912 or 1922 and largely ignored the end of the century. Politics and political parties are examined in detail but high politics does not dominate the book, which rather sets out to answer the question: 'What was it like to grow up and live in...

This major work reveals the dark heart of the history of the Stolen Generations in Australia. It shows that, from the earliest times of European colonization, Aboriginal Australians experienced the trauma of loss and separation, as their children were abducted, enslaved, institutionalized, and culturally remodeled. Providing a moving and comprehensive account of this tragic history, this study covers all Australian colonies, states, and territories. The analysis spans 200 years of white oc...

The last decade has seen radical changes in the way we are governed. Reforms such as the Human Rights Act and devolution have led to the replacement of one constitutional order by another. This book is the first to describe and analyse Britain's new constitution, asking why it was that the old system, seemingly hallowed by time, came under challenge, and why it is being replaced.The Human Rights Act and the devolution legislation have the character of fundamental law. They in pract...

Written by former minister and Labor historian Rodney Cavalier, Power Crisis is an explosive account of the self-destruction of the New South Wales Labor government, which has seen a turnover of four premiers in five years, and is heading for rejection and even humiliation by voters at the next state election. While the catalyst was the thwarted attempt to privatise electricity, Cavalier reveals that the real issue is the takeover of Labor by a professional political class without connecti...