America and the people truly without history

Lives of the Bigamists: Marriage, Family, and Community in Colonial Mexico. By RICHARD BOYER. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. Pp. x, 341.

Law and the Transformation of Aztec Culture, 1500–1700. By SUSAN KELLOG. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. Pp. xxxiii, 285.

To the Royal Crown Restored: The Journals of don Diego de Vargas, New Mexico, 1692–94. Edited by JOHN KESSEL, RICK HENDRICKSA and MEREDITH DODGE. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. Pp. xv, 612.

The Secret History of Gender: Women, Men, and Power in Late Colonial Mexico. By STEVE J. STERN. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. Pp. xiii, 478.     

A battle in the Bush: Some lessons from liberal‐national rivalry in Warrnambool

An intriguing aspect of rural Australian politics has been the occasional capacity of one of the conservative parties to make sudden, substantial electoral gains at the other's expense. C.A. Hughes (1985:53) has suggested that, in order to understand Liberal‐National rivalry, we ought not dwell upon demographic variables but need undertake detailed electoral studies and draw out the importance of ‘the personalities and local popularity of candidates’. Such a micro‐level of political examination, he laments, is rarely attempted in Australia. Ours is a micro‐level study of the one‐time safe Liberal Victorian state seat of Warrnambool in which, in recent elections (1985 and 1988), the National Party has decisively wrested control. Certainly the local popularity of the National Party candidates contributed in no small way to the switch in conservative allegiance which has occurred in Warrnambool. However, contra Hughes, we also identify an important demographic explanatory variable in Catholicism.     

Book reviews

AUSTRALIA IN NEW GUINEA. L. P. Mair. Melbourne University Press, 1970 (2nd ed.). 254 pp. $6.75 hard cover.

DENIS HEALEY AND THE POLICIES OF POWER. Geoffrey Williams and Bruce Reed. Sidgwick and Jackson Ltd., London, 1971. 286 pp. £3.50 stg.

THE PHILIPPINES AND TAIWAN: INDUSTRIALIZATION AND TRADE POLICIES. John H. Power, Gerardo P. Sicat and Mo‐Huang Hsing. Oxford University Press for the Development Centre, OECD, 1971. 324 pp. $7.00 (Paper).

TRADE AND GROWTH IN THE PHILIPPINES. AN OPEN DUAL ECONOMY. George 1. Hicks and Geoffrey McNicoll. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1971. xi, 244 pp. US.$8.50.

THE NEW CHINA. J. A. Johnston and Maslyn Williams (ed.). A. H. & A. W. Reed, Sydney, 1971. 127 pp.

STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY: SUNG CHIAO‐JEN AND THE 1911 CHINESE REVOLUTION. K. S. Liew. Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1971. 260 pp. $7.50.

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INDEPENDENT FIJI. E. K. Fisk. Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1970. 89 pp. $1.95 paper.

THE MAKING OF INDIA'S FOREIGN POLICY: DETERMINANTS, INSTITUTIONS, PROCESSES, PERSONALITIES. J. Bandyopadhyaya. Allied Publishers, Bombay, 1970, xi, 286 pp. Rs 20.

SOVIET RELATIONS WITH LATIN AMERICA, 1918–68. Stephen Clissold (ed.). Oxford University Press, 1970. 313 pp. $11.60.

OIL AND THE ROUMANIAN STATE. Maurice Pearton. Oxford University Press, 1971. 361 pp. $12.50.

BRASSEY'S ANNUAL: DEFENCE AND THE ARMED FORCES 1971. Major‐General J. L. Moulton (ed.). William Clowes and Sons Ltd., London, 1971. 517 pp. £5.00 (stg.)

THE TEMPEST WITHIN. AN ACCOUNT OF EAST PAKISTAN. Dom Moraes. Vikas Publications, Delhi, 1971. x, 103 pp. Rs. 12.50.

POLITICS IN A PLURAL SOCIETY. A STUDY OF NON‐COMMUNAL POLITICAL PARTIES IN WEST MALAYSIA. R. K. Vasil. Oxford University Press for the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Kuala Lumpur, 1971. 338 pp. $6.00 paper, $11.20 hard cover.

THE STRUGGLE OF ISLAM IN MODERN INDONESIA. B. J. Boland. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1971. 283 pp. 28 guilders.

ZIONISM, ISRAEL AND ASIAN NATIONALISM. G. H. Jansen. The Institute for Palestine Studies, Beirut, 1971. xv, 347 pp. US$2.00 Paperback.

WESTERN ECONOMICS IN NON‐WESTERN ECONOMIES. L. G. Reynolds. University of Western Australia Press, 1970. 37 pp. $1.00.

THE INDIGENT RICH: A THEORY OF GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM IN A KEYNESIAN SYSTEM. J W. C. Cumes. Pergamon Press, Australia, 1971. 218 pp. $5.95.