Book reviews

Glen St J. Barclay, Friends in High Places. Australian‐American Diplomatic Relations Since 1945. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, pp 245, $25.00.

Leonie Foster, High Hopes: The Men and Motives of the Australian Round Table. Melbourne University Press in association with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Melbourne, 1986, pp.xviii+294. $25.00.

Ritchie Ovendale, The English‐Speaking Alliance: Britain, the United States, the Dominions and the Cold War, 1945–51. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1985, ppxt309. $60.00.

Australian Institute of Urban Affairs, Review of Australian Assistance to the Indonesian Water Supply and Sanitation Sector. A report for the Australian Development Assistance Bureau, January 1986. pp.xxxiii + 305. $ 16.00.

Malcolm Templeton, Defence and Security: What New Zealand Needs. Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University, Wellington, 1986, pp.62. $NZ11.00.

Philip Eldridge, Dean Forbes and Doug Porter, Australian Overseas Aid: Future Directions. Croom Helm, Sydney, 1986, pp. 284. £16.95.

Christopher Clapham, Third World Politics. An Introduction. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1985, pp.197. $39.95 (cloth), $17.50 (paper).

William Tordoff, Government and Politics in Africa, Macmillan, London, 1984, pp.xix+352. £7.95.

Richard Hodder‐Williams. An Introduction to the Politics of Tropical Africa. George Allen and Unwin, London, Boston and Sydney, 1984. $45.00 (cloth), $ 17.95 (paper).

D. K. Fieldhouse, Black Africa 1945–1980: Economic Decolonization and Arrested Development. Allen and Unwin, London, 1986, pp.xix & 260. $32.50.

Neil Kinnock, Making Our Way. Investing in Britain's Future. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1986, pp.viii + 200. $13.95.

Andrew J. Taylor, The Trade Unions and the Labour Party. Croom Helm, London, 1987, pp. 320. £27.50.

Alistair I. Johnston, China and Arms Control: Emerging Issues and Interest in the 1980s. The Canadian Centre for Arms Control and Disarmament, Ottawa, 1986, pp.85. $US12.00.

Tim Huxley, Asean and Indochina. A Study of Political Responses. 1975–1981. Canberra Studies in World Affairs No. 19. Department of International Relations, the Australian National University, 1985, pp. 116. $10.00.

Lim Chong‐Yah and Peter J. Lloyd (eds), Singapore: Resources and Growth. Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1986, pp 279 + xiv. $20.00.

R. J. May (ed.), Between Two Nations. The Indonesia — Papua New Guinea Border and West Papua Nationalism. Robert Brown and Associates, Bathurst, 1986, pp. 260. $13.95.

Shamsul A. B., From British to Bumiputera Rule — Local Politics and Rural Development in Peninsular Malaysia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1986, pp. xxi + 282. $US28.00 (cloth), $US18.00 (paper).

Bernard Swan, Peace and Conflict in a Poor Country: Sri Lanka, AIIA Occasional Paper No. 3, The Australian Institute of International Affairs, Canberra, 1986, pp.62 $3.50.

James Manor (ed.) Sri Lanka in Change and Crisis. Croom Helm, London & Sydney, 1984, pp.229 $16.95.

Orlando Fals Borda (ed.), The Challenge of Social Change. Sage Publications, London, 1985, pp.134. £15.95.

National Commission on Disappeared People, Nunca Mas/Never Again, English Translation by Writers and Scholars International Ltd. Faber and Faber, London, 1986, pp.xvi + 463. $24.95.

G. McCormack and Y. Sugimoto (eds.), Democracy in Contemporary Japan. Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1986, pp.272. $29.95 (cloth), $14.95 (paper).

Rokuro Hidaka, The Price of Affluence. Dilemma of Contemporary Japan. Penguin Books, Ringwood, 1985, pp.196. $7.95.

Hans H. Baerwald, Party Politics in Japan. Allen and Unwin, London, 1986, pp. xiv+204. $24.50.

Peter Calvert, The Foreign Policy of New States. Wheatsheaf Books, Brighton, 1986, pp. viii + 216. $27.95.

Mohammed Ayoob (ed.), Regional Security in the Third World: Case Studies from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1986, pp. 284. $49.95.

R.J. Vincent (ed.), Foreign Policy and Human Rights — Issues and Responses. Cambridge University Press, in association with The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Cambridge, 1986, pp.283. $84.00.

R.J. Vincent, Human Rights and International Relations. Cambridge University Press, in association with The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Cambridge 1986, pp 186. No price given.

Gerard Chaliand and Jean‐Pierre Rageau, Strategic Atlas: World Geopolitics. Penguin Books, Hammondsworth, 1986, pp. 224. $16.95.

John H. Makin, The Global Debt Crisis: America's Growing Involvement, Basic Books, New York, 1984, pp. 281. $34.95.

Bruce R. Scott and George C. Lodge (eds), U.S. Competitiveness in the World Economy. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass, 1985, pp.x+543. $40.95.

Desmond Ball, A Base for Debate. The US Satellite Station at Nurrungar. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1987, pp. 122. $9.95.

E. M. Andrews, The Writing on the Wall: The British Commonwealth and Aggression in the East 1931–1935. Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1987, pp. KV+228. $29.95.

Lawrence T. Farley, Plebiscites and Sovereignty: The Crisis of Political Legitimacy. Westview Press, Boulder, and Maunsell Publishing, London, 1986, pp. xiv+179. £16.95.

Edwin E. Moise, Modern China: A History. Longmans, New York, 1986, pp.xvi+256. $22.95.

Mark Mancall, China at the Center: 300 Years of Foreign Policy. The Free Press, New York, 1984, pp. xvii+540. $59.95.

Penny Kane, The Second Billion: Population and Family Planning in China. Penguin Books Australia, Ringwood, 1987, pp. 264. $14.95.

Germain A. Hoston, Marxism and the Crisis of Development in Prewar Japan. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1987, pp. xviii+401. $US40.00 (cloth), $US15.00 (paper).

William S. Turley, The Second Indochina War: A Short Political and Military History, 1954–1975. Westview Press, Boulder, and Gower, London, 1986, pp. xvii, 238. $US35.00.     

Palynological and temporal inference in the context of prehistory,with special reference to the evidence from lake and peat deposits

There is an increasing use of palynological data to infer prehistoric agricultural activity. The uncritical acceptance of the technique of pollen analysis by archaeologists and palynologists is questioned. Attention is focussed upon the nature of clearance activity and problems of its inference from pollen spectra; the spatial distribution of palaeoenvironmental sites; and the proximity of such sites to those of prehistoric activity. The resolution apparent in peat and lake sediment pollen profiles together with problems of dating and temporal inference, are examined. In response to a perceived lack of formalization in palynological research, some simple models of clearance activity are presented. The complexity involved in environmental reconstruction is emphasized by reference to the use of supplementary data to augment the orthodox pollen record.     

Iron Age hydraulic plaster from Tell es-Safi/Gath,Israel

Hydraulic plasters or mortars prior to the Roman period are rare. Here, we report the identification and characterization of 3000 year old (Iron Age) hydraulic plaster surfaces from the site of Tell es-Safi/Gath. This site, located in central Israel, was occupied almost continuously from prehistoric through modern times, and is identified as the Canaanite and Philistine city of Gath. A survey using an on-site Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) identified the presence of amorphous silicates, in addition to calcite, in each of two superimposed plaster layers. This suite of minerals is characteristic of hydraulic plaster. An in-depth characterization of the plasters using FTIR, acid dissolution, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray powder diffractometry (pXRD), heating experiments and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM–EDS), shows that special silicate-containing minerals were brought from some distance to the site in order to produce these plaster surfaces. We therefore conclude that the plasters were deliberately produced, and were not the result of a fortuitous addition of local silicate minerals. A layer of around 150 μm thick enriched in carbonate hydroxylapatite was found in both plaster surfaces, and the same mineral was identified by infrared spectrometry in the surrounding sediments. This suggests that organic materials were used on these surfaces. These surfaces are among the oldest hydraulic plasters known.     

Exploring ‘Other’ childhoods through quantitative secondary analyses of large scale surveys: Opportunities and challenges for children's geographers

This paper considers the potential contribution of secondary quantitative analyses of large scale surveys to the investigation of ‘other’ childhoods. Exploring other childhoods involves investigating the experience of young people who are unequally positioned in relation to multiple, embodied, identity locations, such as (dis)ability, ‘class’, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race. Despite some possible advantages of utilising extensive databases, the paper outlines a number of methodological problems with existing surveys which tend to reinforce adultist and broader hierarchical social relations. It is contended that scholars of children's geographies could overcome some of these problematic aspects of secondary data sources by endeavouring to transform the research relations of large scale surveys. Such endeavours would present new theoretical, ethical and methodological complexities, which are briefly considered.     

What future for feminist geography?

Drawing primarily on my own work, speculations are offered on a range of possible futures for feminist geography. It is suggested that the most likely trajectory is one of incorporation as feminist geography is dismissed, regarded with indifference or included within a pluralist, but basically unaltered discipline. While a contentious and depressing suggestion, an alternative trajectory is offered by a feminist geography which actively engages with other progressive developments in the discipline and creatively incorporates new developments in feminist scholarship on, for example, the body, deconstruction and post‐colonialism. A third future builds on such engagements to offer various transformations of the subject, power relations and conceptual baggage which presently constitute feminist geography, through a process of self‐reflection and critical positioning. These three trajectories of incorporation, engagement and transformation I see as simultaneously operating in my own work. Reflections on them are offered for others to consider and to stimulate debate.