Politics Archives | Sydney Review of Books

Review: Andrew Broertjeson political memoirs

Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Greatness by Pete Buttegieg Liveright
352pp
Published February, 2019
ISBN 9781631494369
This Fight is Our Fight: the Battle to Save America’s Middle Class by Elizabeth Warren Picador
368pp
ISBN 9781250155030
An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up from My American Dream by Julian Castro Little, Brown
240pp
Published October, 2018
ISBN 9780316252140
Where We Go From Here: Two Years in the Resistance by Bernie Sanders Macmillan
288pp
Published March, 2019
ISBN 9781250235282
Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose by by Joe Biden Macmillan
272pp
Published November, 2017
ISBN 9781509890057

Primary Reading

It has become more unusual in recent years for presidential candidates not to have written books, usually in the form of memoirs, policy works, or some combination of both.

Oct. 2019 • Non-fiction • Politics

Review: Jeff Sparrowon new books about neoliberalism

How Labour Built Neoliberalism: Australia’s Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project by Elizabeth Humphrys Haymarket Books
268pp
Published November, 2019
ISBN 9781642590685
Dead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next by Richard Denniss Black Inc
196pp
Published February, 2019
ISBN 9781760641306
On Fairness by Sally McManus Melbourne University Publishing
277pp
Published February, 2019
ISBN 9780522874853

Goodbye to All That: The End of Neoliberalism?

Yet labour’s role in the establishment of neoliberalism in Australia marked both the union movement and the ALP, leaving both of them shells of their former selves.

Sep. 2019 • Non-fiction • Politics • Work

Review: Deen Sharpon the GCC

Money, Markets, and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East by Adam Hanieh Cambridge University Press
Published September, 2018
ISBN 9781108614443
The New Arab Urban: Gulf Cities of Wealth, Ambition, and Distress by Harvey Molotch and Davide Ponzini (eds) NYU Press
368pp
Published February, 2019
ISBN 9781479897254
Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi Gökçe Günel by Gökçe Günel Duke University Press
272pp
Published March, 2019
ISBN 9781478000914

The World The Gulf Has Built

How exceptional can a region that produces so much of the energy that powers contemporary capitalism be?

Sep. 2019 • Non-fiction • Politics

Review: Jane Goodallon on Scott Morrison

The Prosperity Gospel: How Scott Morrison won and Bill Shorten lost by Erik Jensen Quarterly Essay
Published June, 2019
ISBN 9781760 641511
Plots and Prayers: Malcolm Turnbull’s demise and Scott Morrison’s ascension by Niki Savva Scribe
408pp
Published July, 2019
ISBN 9781925 849189

The Chosen Ones

The one thing Morrison seems to have grasped is that politics is not essentially about what goes on in the corridors of Parliament House.

Aug. 2019 • Non-fiction • Politics

Review: Joshua Mostafaon Shoshana Zuboff

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff Profile Books
672pp
49.99 AU
Published March, 2019
ISBN 9781781256848
Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto by Aaron Bastani Verso
288pp
Published June, 2019
ISBN 9781786632623

The Revolution Will Not Be Automated

In his short story ‘The Library of Babel’, Jorge Luis Borges describes a world that consists solely of a vast,…

Jul. 2019 • Non-fiction • Politics

Review: Miriam Cosicon democracies in decline

How Democracy Ends by David Runciman Profile Books
256pp
Published June, 2018
ISBN 9781781259740
Democracy and Truth: A Brief History by Sophia Rosenfeld University of Pennsylvania Press
224pp
Published November, 2018
ISBN 9780812250848
Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World by Samuel Moyn Belknapp
Published April, 2018
ISBN 9780674737563
Clear Bright Future: A radical defence of the human being by Paul Mason Allan Lane
368pp
Published May, 2019
ISBN 9780241390337

Exhortations to the Resistance

The election of Donald Trump to the American presidency at the end of 2016 came as a day of reckoning…

Jun. 2019 • Non-fiction • Politics

Review: Greg Lockharton Judith Brett's Alfred Deakin

The Enigmatic Mr Deakin by Judith Brett Text Publishing
ISBN 9781925603712

At The Limits of Liberalism: The Enigmatic Mr Deakin

Australians want reality hushed up. They are fundamentally inspired by a fear of life. — H.G. Wells in Australia, 1939. Alfred…

Mar. 2019 • Biography • History • Non-fiction • Politics

Review: Jeff Sparrowon new books about fascism

Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright William Collins
304pp
Published April, 2018
ISBN 9780062802187
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley Random House
212pp
Published September, 2018
ISBN 0525511830
National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy by Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin Penguin
382pp
Published October, 2018
ISBN 9780241312001
Against the Fascist Creep by Alexander Reid Ross AK Press
400pp
Published February, 2017
ISBN 9781849352444
Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook by Mark Bray Melbourne University Press
288pp
Published October, 2017
ISBN 9780522873061

Fascist Creeps

‘For once, the person that will be called a fascist is an actual fascist.’ In the manifesto disseminated before his…

Mar. 2019 • Non-fiction • Politics

Review: James Leyon political discourse

The Death of Truth by Michiko Kakutani William Collins
208pp
$24.99 AU
Published August, 2018
ISBN 9780008312787
Trigger Warnings: Political Correctness and the Rise of the Right by Jeff Sparrow Scribe
320pp
$29.99 AU
Published October, 2018
ISBN 9781925713183