Book reviews

AUSTRALIA IN WORLD AFFAIRS 1966–70. Gordon Greenwood and Norman Harper (eds.). Cheshire, for the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Melbourne, 1974. vii + 489 pp. 0–7015–1571–6. $13.95.

FROM TWEEDLEDUM TO TWEEDLEDEE. THE NEW LABOR GOVERNMENT IN AUSTRALIA: A CRITIQUE OF ITS SOCIAL MODEL. Robert Catley and Bruce McFarlane. Australia and New Zealand Book Company, Sydney, 1974. 88 pp. + 24 pp. app. 0–8555–022–1. $3.50 paper.

FULL CIRCLE. S. F. Rowell. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1974, 206 pp. $9.90.

PUBLIC POLICY IN AUSTRALIA. Roy Forward (ed.). Cheshire, Melbourne, 1974. 276 pp. 07015–1741–7. $6.50 paper.

TO PHOENIX SEAT: AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY OF MAOISM AND THE CHINESE COMMUNIST QUEST FOR A PARADISE ON EARTH. Leslie R. Marchant. Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1973. 276 pp. 0–207–12373. $7.95.

THE NORTH KOREAN COMMUNIST LEADERSHIP, 1945–1965: A STUDY OF FACTIONALISM AND POLITICAL CONSOLIDATION. Koon Woo Nam. The University of Alabama Press, Alabama 35486, 1974. 214 pp. 08193–4723–2. $7.50.

TRADITION AND REVOLUTION IN VIETNAM. Nguyen Khac Vien. Indochina Resource Center, Berkeley, California, 1974. 169 pp. $US 2.65.

POLITICS AND POWER IN CAMBODIA: THE SIHANOUK YEARS. Milton Osborne. Longman, Melbourne, 1974. 120 pp. $7.50 hard cover, $3.50 paper.

THE 1971 ELECTIONS IN INDONESIA: AN EAST JAVA CASE STUDY. Ken Ward. Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, 1974. 120 pp. 0–909835–09–8. $3.75.

TWENTY YEARS OF INDONESIAN FOREIGN POLICY, 1945–1965. Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung. Mouton, The Hague and Paris, 1973. 640 pp. $17.00.

HET EKONOMISCH BELEID IN NEDERLANDSCH‐INDIE, CAPITA SELECTA. EEN BRONNENPUBLICATIE (Economic Policy in the Netherlands Indies, Selected Subjects), PART II. P. Creutzberg (ed.). Publication No. 6 of the ‘Committee for the Publication of Primary Sources Concerning the History of the Netherlands Indies 1900–1942’. H. D. Tjeenk Willink, B.V., Groningen, The Netherlands, 1974. 792 pp.

FIFTEEN MEN ON A POWDER KEG: A HISTORY OF THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL. Andrew Boyd. University Paperback, London, 1973. (First published by Methuen & Co. 1971.) 416–70230–9. 383 pp. $4.20.

HAMMARSKJOLD. Brian Urquhart. The Bodley Head, London, 1972. 630 pp. $14.70.

THE NEW ZEALAND BUREAUCRAT. T. B. Smith. Cheshire, Wellington, New Zealand, 1974. 162 pp. $9.95.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS: FOUNDATIONS OF THE SYSTEM. Werner Levi. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1974. (Distributed in Australia by Oxford University Press.) 285 pp. 0–8166–0703–6. $11.00.     

A caricature of Gramsci

Alastair Davidson: Antonio Gramsci: The Man, His Ideas, Australian Left Review Publications, Sydney, 1968, iv + 106 pp.     

‘A Repository,a Switchboard,a Dynamo’: H.L. Beales,a Historian in a Mass Media Age

The historian H.L. Beales (1889–1988) managed to propagate a wider interpretation of nineteenth century social history through non-academic means. Whilst Beales failed to write much in the way of history, his parallel career as an adult education tutor, radio broadcaster and editor of Pelican books meant that he acted as an important propagator of the subject. This, combined with wide influence over a considerable proportion of the younger generation, means that he should be considered as a singularly important historian of the period, who realised and adapted to the potential of new mass media to reach new audiences.     

Engineering Art and Telling Tales: Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy

Anish Kapoor has become well known for his enormous architectural installations and for his use of vibrant colour. Much of his work depends critically on good engineering and he has collaborated closely with engineers for many years. I discuss several of Kapoor's large works, approaching them from an engineer's perspective. I also show how Kapoor weaves layers of narrative in some of his work: so that a naïve understanding of a piece's construction is a falsehood layered over the true engineering solution. The story seems initially obvious to the audience but a little digging, a little thought, reveals that it is a fiction and that reality is something other.