Book reviews

SHOWCASE STATE: THE ILLUSION OF INDONESIA'S ‘ACCELERATED MODERNISATION’. Rex Mortimer (ed.). Angus and Robertson, 1973. 164 pp; 0–207–12826. $3.95 softbound, $5.95 hardbound.

FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION: THE CASE OF INDONESIA. Jon M. Reinhardt. Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, Monograph Series No. 17, 1971. Distributed by The Cellar Book Shop, 18090 Wyoming, Detroit, Michigan 48221. $US6.50.

ISLAMIC COURTS IN INDONESIA: A STUDY IN THE POLITICAL BASES OF LEGAL INSTITUTIONS. Daniel S. Lev. University of California Press, Berkeley, London, 1972. 281 pp.

AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN POLICY: TOWARDS A REASSESSMENT. Claire Clark (ed.). Cassell Australia, Melbourne, 1973. 274 pp. $3.75.

FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA. Enid Campbell and Harry Whitmore. Second edition, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1973. 488 pp. $15 cloth, $10 paper.

CONTEMPORARY NEW ZEALAND. K. W. Thomson and A. D. Trlin (eds.). Hicks Smith, Wellington, 1973. 456 01430 6. 218 pp.

CANADA'S SEARCH FOR NEW ROLES: FOREIGN POLICY IN THE TRUDEAU ERA. Peter C. Dobell. Oxford University Press, London, 1972. 0–19–285057–1. 161 pp. $5.10.

SOUTH AFRICA'S FOREIGN POLICY 1945–19701 James Barber. Oxford University Press, 1973. 0–19–21561–9. 325 pp. $13.15.

POWER AND EQUILIBRIUM IN THE 1970s. Alastair Buchan. Chatto & Windus, London, 1973. 0–7011–1998–5. 120 pp. $6.80.

THE SOVIET UNION IN WORLD AFFAIRS: A DOCUMENTED ANALYSIS, 1964–72. W. W. Kulski. Syracuse University Press, Box 8, University Sta, Syracuse, N.Y. 13210, USA, 1973. 526 pp. $US5.95 paper, $US17.50 hard cover.

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NEW ROMAN EMPIRE: ITALY'S BID FOR WORLD POWER, 1890–1943. G. St. J. Barclay. Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1973. 210 pp. 0283 97862. £3.95stg.

THE FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY VERSUS THE STUDENTS. Richard Johnson. Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1972. 215 pp. 0–300–01525–9. $8.00 cloth, $1.95 paper.

STUDIES IN DEMOGRAPHY. Ashish Bose, P. B. Desai, and S. P. Jain (eds.). The University of North Carolina Press, 1972. 579 pp. $12.95.

A DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF MODERN INDIA. Charles H. Heimsath and Surjit Mansingh. Allied Publishers, Calcutta, 1971. .559 pp. Rs. 30.

CHINA: THE REVOLUTION CONTINUED. Jan Myrdal and Gun Kessle. Penguin Books, U.S.A., 1973. 155 pp. $2.20.

MAO TSE‐TUNG AND GANDHI: PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION. J. Bandyopadhyaya. Allied Publishers, Calcutta, 1973. 156 pp.

STUDIES IN POLITICS: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL. M. S. Rajan (ed.). Vikas Publications, Delhi, 1971. 512 pp. Rs. 60.     

Australian foreign policy and news media: national identity and the sale of uranium to India and China

This article explores the utility of a constructivist-media communications approach to understanding the production of national identity in Australia through a case study of the Australian Labor Party's 2011 decision to allow uranium sales to India. The decision came at a time when Australian foreign policy, political debate and news media discourse were increasingly concerned with India and China, as ‘rising’ superpowers whose prominence offered opportunities for economic prosperity even as it undermined settled regional power balances. This article finds that, rather than a matter of rational strategy, the decision was made in a context of considerable anxiety about the ‘Asian century’ as the Australian public, politicians and policymakers struggled to comprehend geopolitical change. It further argues that the constructivist project in international relations can benefit from engaging with insights from media and communications methodologies and by taking a less hierarchical approach to ‘elite’ and ‘non-elite’ discursive agency.     

The fort in the doctor’s house: using tree-ring growth patterns to discover historic Fort Wayne,Indiana, USA

Local Fort Wayne, Indiana (USA) lore says that the Dr. Merchant Huxford House contains timbers from Fort Wayne, the US military outpost constructed in 1794 by General Anthony Wayne. The wilderness fort played roles in Native American and British conflicts and was the genesis for a city with a current population of more than 250,000. The doctor’s residence was built on the outskirts of the young city, but within 0.4 km of the fort site. Accounts contemporary to the house’s construction describe timbers being recycled from the fort for use in new building projects. This article describes the use of dendrochronological methods to establish a construction date for the Huxford House and attempts to confirm or dispel accounts that the house contains recycled timbers from the historic fort.