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Niall Ferguson’s 'Civilisation: The West and the Rest'

Cry Freedom

By Malcolm Turnbull

In 1759 Samuel Johnson published his novel Rasselas about an Abyssinian prince who travels through Egypt with his philosopher guide, Imlac. Rasselas asks his teacher, “By what means are the Europeans thus powerful? Or why, since they can so easily visit Asia and Africa for trade or conquest, cannot the Asiatics and Africans invade their coast, plant colonies in their ports, and give laws to

Renewable Energy

Comment

By Guy Pearse

Every year the sunburnt country receives enough solar energy from above to meet its current annual energy consumption for 10,000 years. From below, there’s enough geothermal energy for 2.6 million years. An endless and impatient queue of ‘roaring 40s’ weather systems rolls from the west across Australia’s south bringing some of the world’s best wind energy. As serendipitous, most of

Gendercide

By Anne Manne

The boy’s twin also sits on mother’s lap, but this baby is tiny, its emaciated form one-third the size of the thriving boy. The infant’s face is shrunken, skin stretched over a skull with every facial bone visible. Its limbs are stick thin, ribs prominent over a distended belly. The mother does not embrace this baby, but holds her hand away on her hip. This baby does not drink from the mother’s breast. Rather, it sucks feebly at

'Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism' by Natasha Walter

By Linda Jaivin

Swaddled in princess pink, tottering towards adolescence on their training heels, many young girls today are growing up in the plastic, not so fantastic monoculture of what Natasha Walter calls “living dolls”. This is a world in which, for women, “sexual confidence is the only confidence worth having,” where sexual allure is defined by the porn indus

Joseph Kosuth and Conceptual Art

Neon Statements

By Justin Clemens

At the beginning of the 1960s, the New York art scene was going wild. World War II had created the conditions for the city to become the new capital of the world, and Americans were unapologetically seizing opportunity in every way they could. Not only had ‘

Carbon Omissions

Comment

By Tim Flannery

Over the past four years, there has been immeasurable progress on climate change - in public awareness, in media interest and in the political response to the problem. In early 2005, one of us was completing The Weather Makers; the other was working at 10 Down

Alan Greenspan’s ‘The Age of Turbulence’

Reigning Bull

By Gideon Haigh

Michael Pollan’s ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ & Bill McKibben’s ‘Deep Economy’

Eco-Worriers

By Robyn Davidson

'BA Santamaria: Your Most Obedient Servant'

Resisting the Tide

By David McKnight

Kevin Rudd has put religion back on the political agenda, at least as far as the op-ed pages and serious talk shows are concerned. But there was a time when religion played a more incendiary role in the nation's politics, and Australians, especially Catholic Australians