Book reviews

Henry Albinski, The Australian‐American Security Relationship. University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia and London, 1982, pp. x + 257. $29.95.

Desmond Ball (ed.), Strategy and Defence: Australian Essays. George Allen and Unwin Australia, Sydney, 1982, pp. 402, $24.95 (cloth), $12.95 (paper).

A.F. Madden and W.H. Morris‐Jones (eds.), Australia and Britain: Studies in a Changing Relationship. Sydney University Press in association with Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Sydney, 1980, pp. xvii + 195. $15.00.

John Robertson, Australia at War 1939–1945. Heinemann Australia, Melbourne, 1981, pp. xv + 269. No price given.

R.H. Mathams, Sub Rosa: Memoirs of an Australian Intelligence Analyst. George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1982, pp. 127. $15.95 (cloth), $7.95 (paper).

James Michael, The Politics of Secrecy. Penguin, Harmonds‐worth, 1982, pp. 240. $7.95.

Leon Glezer, Tariff Politics: Australian Policy‐Making 1960–1980. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1982, pp. 360. $25.00.

K.J. Holsti, Why Nations Realign: Foreign Policy Restructuring in the Postwar World. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1982, pp. xi + 225. $49.95.

Andrew J. Pierre, The Global Politics of Arms Sales. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1982, pp. 311. $US26.00 (cloth), $US7.75 (paper).

Kim Richard Nossal (ed.), An Acceptance of Paradox: Essays on Canadian Diplomacy in honour of John W. Holmes. Canadian Institute of International Affairs, Toronto, 1982, pp. 202. $Can.13.50.

Mohammad Ayoob (ed.), The Politics of Islamic Reassertion, Croom Helm, London, 1981, pp. 298. $23.75.

Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1982, pp. xiii + 561. $US58.50 (Cloth), $US 19.00 (Paper).

Donald N. Wilber, Iran Past and Present: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic (9th Edition). Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1981, pp. ix + 375. £4.90.

Fred Halliday, Threat From the East? Soviet Policy From Afghanistan and Iran to The Horn Of Africa. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1982, pp. 149. $4.95.

Rupert Lockwood, Black Armada. Hale and Ironmonger, Sydney, 1982, pp. viii + 352. $24.95 (cloth), $13.95 (paper).

Baladas Ghoshal, Indonesian Politics 1955–1959: The Emergence of Guided Democracy, K.P. Bagchi & Co., Calcutta, 1982, pp. 314. Rs 75.00.

David G. Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial. 1920–1945. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1981, pp. xi + 468. $34.95.

Richard Storry, A History of Modern Japan. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1982, pp. 304. $5.75.

Terry Edward Macdougall (ed.), Political Leadership in Contemporary Japan. (Michigan Papers in Japanese Studies No. 1), Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1982, pp. xiii + 145. $US5.00.

John Creighton Campbell (ed.), Parties, Candidates and Voters in Japan: Six Quantitative Studies. (Michigan Papers in Japanese Studies No. 2) The Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1981, pp. viii + 169. $US5.00.

G. W. Breslauer, Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders: Building Authority in Soviet Politics. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1982, pp. xiii + 318. $39,95 (cloth), $18.95 (paper).

John Ardagh, France in the 1980s. Penguin Books, Harmonds‐worth, 1982, pp. 672. $10.95.

Terutomo Ozawa, Multinationalism, Japanese Style: The Political Economy of Outward Dependency. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1979, pp. xxiii + 289. £6.30.

Bertram Gross, Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America. M. Evans and Company, New York, 1980, pp. ix + 140. $19.25.

Michael Moynagh, Brown or White? A history of the Fiji sugar industry, 1873–1973. Pacific Research Monograph No. 5, Australian National University, Canberra, 1981. pp. xxi + 306. $9.00.

C. Whitehead, Education in Fiji: policy, problems and progress in primary and secondary education 1939–1973. Pacific Research Monograph No. 6, Australian National University, Canberra, 1981. pp. xix + 228. $9.00.

Timothy J. Macnaught, The Fijian Colonial Experience: A study of the neotraditional order under British colonial rule prior to World War II. Pacific Research Monograph No. 7, Australian National University, Canberra, 1982. pp. xvii + 203. $10.00.

Rolf Gerritsen, R.J. May and Michael A.H.B. Walter, Road Belong Development: Cargo Cults. Community Groups and Self‐Help Movements in Papua New Guinea. Australian National University, Department of Political and Social Change Working Paper No. 3, 1981, pp. ii + 117. $5.00.

R.J. May, National‐Provincial Government Relations in Papua New Guinea: Consultant's Report to the Committee to Review the Financial Provisions of the Organic Law on Provincial Government. Australian National University, Department of Political and Social Change Working Paper No. 4, 1981, pp. 57. $5.00.

Richard Newman, Workers and Unions in Bombay 1918–1929. A Study of Organisation in the Cotton Mitts. Australian National University Monographs on South Asia 6, Australian National University, Canberra, 1981, pp. xvi + 320. $10.00.

Eamon Murphy, Unions in Conflict. A Comparative Study of Four South Indian Textile Centres. 1918–1939. Australian National University Monographs on South Asia 5, Manohar Publications, New Delhi, 1981, pp. xii + 287. $10.00.

Marcus Franda, Bangladesh: the First Decade, South Asian Publishers, New Delhi in association with Universities Field Staff International, New Hampshire, 1982, pp. 335. No price given.     

Vagrant,Convict, Cannibal Chief: Abel Magwitch and the Culture of Cannibalism in Great Expectations

Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations opens with a jolt, as Abel Magwitch – an escaped convict – pounces on the narrator and protagonist, Pip. Despite this rather dramatic introduction, and the pivotal role that he goes on to play in the plot, Magwitch has never been given the sustained critical analysis that he warrants. More often than not he has been treated as one of Dickens’s infamous ‘flat’ characters; a kind of ‘pantomime wicked uncle’, in the words of George Orwell. This is a critical legacy that this paper seeks to redress. Seeing Magwitch as an essential element in Dickens’s critique of mid nineteenth-century society, this paper examines Magwitch’s largely ignored peripatetic and homeless past. By contextualizing Magwitch in his role as a vagrant outsider, and then exploring how this marginal position nuances the cannibalistic appetite he displays in the first pages of the novel, I argue that Magwitch’s violence and ‘savagery’ forms a foil for the more sadistic practices of civilized society. In doing so I position Magwitch at the dark heart of Dickens’s social pessimism, and re-evaluate the culture of cannibalism that we see in Great Expectations.     

A Micro Model of Problem Definition and Policy Choice: Issue Image,Issue Association,and Policy Support of Power Plants

Past research on problem definition and public policy primarily focuses on the macro-system level. In this study, we propose a micro model of problem definition and policy choice at the individual level. We argue that while individual citizens' problem definitions and policy preferences are rooted in and filtered through their predisposition characteristics (such as socioeconomic status, political orientation, and informational base), their policy choices also strongly depend on how they define public issues, particularly how they perceive the image of an issue at hand and how they associate the issue with other public issues. Our empirical analyses, based on data from a national public survey on energy and power plant issues, support the key propositions derived from our theoretical model. Key contributions to and implications for policy studies are discussed in conclusion.