Book reviews

Richard Higgott, The Evolving World Economy: Some Alternative Security Questions for Australia. Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 51. Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University 1989. 90 pp. $10.00.

Andrew Mack and Paul Keal (eds), Security and Arms Control in the North Pacific. Sydney, Allen and Unwin Australia, 1989. xiii + 324 pp. $39.95 (cloth), $27.50 (paper).

Francis Stuart, Towards Coming of Age. A Foreign Service Odyssey. Centre for the Study of Australian‐Asian Relations, Griffith University, 1989. vi + 264 pp. $12.00.

Bruce S. Bennett, New Zealand's Moral Foreign Policy 1935–39: The Promotion of Collective Security Through the League of Nations. Wellington, New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1988. vii + 134 pp. $NZ21.00.

E.E. Azar and Chung‐In Moon (eds), National Security in the Third World, The Management of Internal and External Threats. Aldershot, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 1988. 308 pp. £25.00.

Robert P. Haffa Jr, Rational Methods, Prudent Choices: Planning US Forces. Washington D.C., National Defense University Press, 1988. xv + 165 pp. No price given.

William Bunge, Nuclear War Atlas. Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1989. 204 pp. $29.95.

David H. Price, Atlas of World Cultures. A Geographical Guide to Ethnographic Literature. Newbury Park, California, Sage Publications, 1989. 156 pp. $US35.00.

Richard Sakwa, Soviet Politics: An Introduction. London and New York, Routledge, 1989. xvi + 356 pp. $120.00.

Terence Thomas (ed.), The British, Their Religious Beliefs and Practices 1800–1986. London and New York, Routledge, 1988. vii + 247 pp. $82.95 (doth), $29.95 (paper).

Robert A. Scalapino, Seizaburo Sato, Jusuf Wanandi and Sung‐joo Han (eds). Asia and the Major Powers. Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy. Berkeley, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1988. vi + 386 pp. $US20.00.

Robert A. Scalapino, Seizaburo Sato, Jusuf Wanandi and Sung‐joo Han (eds). Asian Security Issues. Regional and Global. Berkeley, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1988. vi + 394 pp. $US20.00.

Robert A. Scalapino and Dalchoong Kim, Asian Communism, Continuity and Transition. Berkeley, Korea Research Monograph 15, Center for Korean Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1988. vi + 364 pp. $US20.00.

Ngok Lee, China's Defence Modernisation and Military Leadership. Canberra, Australian National University/Pergamon Press, 1989. xxi + 395 pp. No price given.

David G. Mart and Christine P. White (eds), Postwar Vietnam: Dilemmas in Socialist Developments. Ithaca, NY, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1988. 248 pp. $US12.00.

Philip Eldridge, NGOs in Indonesia: Popular Movement or Arm of Government? Working Paper 55, The Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University. 59 pp. $6.00.

Saw Swee‐Hock. The Population of Peninsular Malaysia. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1988. xv + 342 pp. $US32.00 (doth), $US25.00 (paper).

Colin Legum, The Battlefronts of Southern Africa. New York, Africana Publishing Company, 1988. xxiv + 451 pp. No price given.

Morris H. Morley, Imperial State and Revolution: The United States and Cuba, 1952–1986. Melbourne; Cambridge University Press, 1987. ix + 571 pp. $51.00.     

John Paul Vann and the End of "Informal Empire"

Review in this Article
Neil Sheehan. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam . New York Random House, 1988. 861 pp.     

Politics and the Cultural Landscape: The Case of Aboriginal Land Rights

In this paper Aboriginal land rights are analysed from the perspective of a disadvantaged group seeking access to a scarce resource controlled by external agents. The Aboriginal participants in land rights politics are found to be actively seeking ways in which their interest in the land can most effectively be communicated to external groups which have constructed well-formed, but often distorted images of what constitutes a genuine Aboriginal interest in the land These externally constructed notions of Aboriginality and what constitutes a valid land claim are influencing the concepts used by Aboriginal groups in the public political arena to demonstrate their unique interest in the land In this paper three examples of this process are explored- the emphasis of a specific gender model, the emphasis on spatially discrete sacred sites and the emphasis on the bounded tribal territory.     

CHEMICAL AND LEAD ISOTOPE ANALYSES OF GREEK LATE NEOLITHIC AND EARLY BRONZE AGE METALS

Results of a combined archaeological and analytical project of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age copper, bronze and lead artefacts from four distinct areas of mainland Greece are presented. The aim of the study is to understand better the stages of technological development of each region, their possible ore sources and also to assess any external contribution to or internal evolution of their metallurgy. Interesting results which could challenge the established view of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age metallurgy in the Greek mainland are presented.     

THERMOLUMINESCENCE DATING OF MATERIALS WHICH EXHIBIT ANOMALOUS FADING

This article reports a generalised and systematic approach to the thermoluminescence (TL) dating of samples which suffer from anomalous fading. We hypothesise that the TL signal from each mineral phase is composed of a stable and an unstable portion. The decay of the unstable TL is accelerated thermally, until only stable TL remains. The dating is then carried out on this stable signal. The results, on four known-age, coeval samples, exhibiting gross anomalous fading (25-50% loss over a few days), indicate that many, if not all, samples may successfully be dated with this approach.