Books

Part of my attraction to this book is that I enjoyed his previous bestseller Fast Food Nation so much. I am from the generation that took the threat of nuclear annihilation more seriously. The cold war was still happening right through my formative years. We watched movies like "The Day After" and "The China Syndrome". The news was dominated by stories of conflict between the United States and the USSR. The debate between capitalism and democracy, authoritarianism and communism, was very real in our lives. Nuclear weapons and nuclear war were something we thought about often. Damocles underpinned our lives...

It is rare to read a book which so upends your historical notions of the place in which you live. Although I went to an alternative school where I studied Aboriginal History, and despite reading about Aboriginal life and culture before, this book was a revelation to me. The first revelation is the Aboriginal society was more technologically advanced than we have commonly been taught. They had forms of farming and housing which I was specifically taught that they didn't have. The book seems to imply that this means they should have been treated better, or that Aboriginal culture should...

In some ways, one could see it as a ridiculous idea. That systems created and supported by violence could be threatened by peaceful protest. Time and again over history however that is what we have seen. Indeed non-violent movements are often more successful than violent ones. Violence plays the game using the oppressor's own rules, however, when they lose the moral authority to govern in society their days are often numbered. For anyone who wants to understand how society can change or be changed, they lay out in detail the tactics used by the people leading change. We can learn...

Whilst working at the University of Queensland, I would wander through the Co-operative bookshop and this book would always call to me. I picked it up a number of times, but always the word "moral" in the subtitle put me off. Anyway finally I did pick it up, and I've now completely changed my view about the use of the word moral. We need to ask more what is moral and to reclaim it from the religious conservatives who have hitherto defined it in our cultural discourse. The enormity of this book and the relevance of the questions it asks...

Having been a bomber in World War Two, Howard Zinn is well placed to give a unique perspective on issues of pacifism, violence, dissent and just war in his short interview-based book Terrorism and War. Zinn in this book reminded me somewhat of Chomsky (who deeply admires and has been heavily influenced by Zinn) with his obviously broad knowledge and recall of statistics, quotes and other evidence. This book is inspiring and thought-provoking, especially Zinn's original take on the morality of WW2. If you can't find time to read this book, at least watch his talk "Three holy wars" as...

Heroes is one of the most inspiring and challenging books I have ever read. John Pilger is an example of what true journalism is about, he hasn't spent his life waiting for the next PR event or corporate press release to come through, he has seen the killing fields of Cambodia, the slave gangs of Burma, the horror of the USA's attack on Vietnam, and he writes about it with a passion and insight that only having been deeply moved can produce. That said he is not one for hyperbole, and this gives his writing a clarity of purpose that...