Biography without history?

Kevin Perkins: Menzies: Last of the Queen's Men, Rigby, Adelaide, 1968, pp. 264, $5.50.     

Book reviews

Hans Granqvist: The Red Guard: A Report on Mao's Revolution, trans. Erik J. Friis, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1967, pp. 159 + ix, $5.95.

James A Maxwell: Commonwealth‐State Financial Relations in Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1967, pp. 124 + ix, $5.00.

J. R. Flynn: American Politics: a Radical View, Blackwood and Janet Paul Limited, Auckland, 1967, pp. 255, $5.50.

Colin Mackerras and Neale Hunter: China Observed, 1964/1967, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1967, pp. 194, $4.95.

F. Alexander: Australia Since Federation, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1967, pp. 352, well illustrated, $4.95, $2.50 (paperback).

G. R. Elton: The Practice of History, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1967, pp. 178 + viii, $3.00.

A. Jones: Andrew Jones M.H.R. by Himself, Rigby Ltd., Adelaide, 1967, pp. 186, $0.95.

R. W. Connell and Florence Gould: Politics of The Extreme Right, Sydney Studies in Politics, No. 7, Sydney University Press, 1967, pp. 115, $2.50.

R. R. Walker: Communicators: People, Practices, Philosophies in Australian Advertising, Media, Marketing, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1967, pp. 416, $10.

Basil Mitchell: Law, Morality and Religion in a Secular Society, Oxford University Press, London, 1967, pp. 141 + vii, $4.25.     

Urban political ecology in late prehistory: New evidence from El Purgatorio,Peru

One of archaeology's greatest strengths is its reliance on interdisciplinary collaboration and the utilization of multiple lines of evidence to inform archaeological interpretation. For example, through an examination of faunal and floral remains, production and storage facilities, and the isotopic analysis of human skeletal remains one can develop a model for urban political ecology in ancient cultures. In this case study, the political ecology of the Casma capital city, El Purgatorio, Peru, is investigated in order to inform our interpretations and conclusions regarding Casma political, economic and social organization. The results indicate that Casma political ecology was firmly based in coastal resources and oriented towards supporting state-sponsored feasting and ritual activities, suggestive of a largely elite-controlled redistributive economy. In contrast to previous models characterizing this time period as one of factionalism and environmental stress, the data suggest that coastal cultural adaptations produced an era of widespread political and economic stability.     

Book reviews

THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD ARENA: AN ESSAY IN RECENT HISTORY. W. W. Rostow. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1960. Pp. xxii + 568. $8.75.

LORD LOTHIAN (PHILIP KERR) : 1882–1940. J. R. M. Butler. London, Macmillan & Co., 1960. Pp. xiii + 385. Australian price 57/9.

THE SOVIET BLOC: UNITY AND CONFLICT. Zbigniew K. Brzezinski. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1960. Pp. xxii + 470. Australian price 85/3.

THE SOVIET DICTATORSHIP. Herbert McClosky and John E. Turner. N.Y., McGraw Hill Book Company Inc., 1960. Pp. xiv + 657. $7.95.

FRANCE, TROUBLED ALLY: DE GAULLE'S HERITAGE AND PROSPECTS. Edgar S. Furniss. For the Council on Foreign Relations. N.Y., Harper and Brothers, 1960. Pp. xiii + 512. $5.75.

THE NEXT FIFTEEN YEARS. Pierre Mendes‐France. Cambridge University Press, 1960. 3/6.

NATIONALISM AND THE RIGHT WING IN JAPAN. Ivan Morris. Under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. London, Oxford University Press, 1960. Pp. xxviii + 476. Australian price 81/3.

ELECTIONS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. T. E. Smith. With an introduction by B. Keith‐Lucas. London, Macmillan, 1960. Pp. xvii + 272.

THE BELGIAN CONGO. Some Recent Changes. Ruth Slade. For Institute of Race Relations. London, Oxford University Press, 1960. Pp. viii + 55. 3 maps. Australian price 8/6.

RACIAL PROBLEMS IN SOVIET MUSLIM ASIA. Geoffrey Wheeler. For Institute of Race Relations. London, Oxford University Press, 1960. Pp. xii + 66. 2 maps. Australian priee 10/‐.

THE DIPLOMACY OF SOUTH‐EAST ASIA, 1945–1958. Russell H. Fifield. N.Y., Harper and Brothers, 1958. Pp. xiii + 584. $7.50.

POLITICAL FORCES IN PAKISTAN, 1947–1959. Keith B. Callard. N.Y., Institute of Pacific Relations, 1959. Pp. 48. $2.00.     

Drought,Domestic Budgeting and Wealth Distribution in Sahelian Households

Over the past twenty‐five years, Sahelian households have experienced recurrent harvest failure and greater reliance on remittances from migratory wage labour. Household subsistence has become less dependent on household grain stores and more on the liquidation of individual wealth stores. This study investigates how these broader changes have affected struggles between household members over obligations to support the household in the Zarmaganda region of western Niger. As the land‐derived leverage of male patriarchs has declined and household dependence on individual wealth stores has increased, domestic budgeting has become more contested. Household heads make case‐by‐case moral claims on other household members during times of grain shortage. Women and subordinate males invoke Islamic law, which accords primary provisioning responsibility to the household head, to protect their individual wealth in times of grain deficit. This article investigates the nature of these budgetary struggles, showing how individuals’ decisions to contribute individual wealth to support the household are best understood as highly situated, affected not only by the specific material conditions of the household but also the interplay of the moral, structural, and individualistic imperatives that derive from one’s position within the household. Using reconstructed livestock wealth histories for the members of fifty‐four households in western Niger, this study investigates the material consequences of these struggles. Male heads of corporate households, the historic managers of the household’s land and agricultural labour, have lost wealth relative to their wives and married male subordinates since the drought of 1984.     

Searle's Social Reality

Book reviewed in this article:
The Construction of Social Reality by John R. Searle     

The environment of northeast England during Roman times as shown by pollen analysis

Data from nine radiocarbon-dated pollen diagrams from the northeast of England are considered and it is argued that much of the area was deforested and used for farming during the late pre-Roman Iron Age. This farming continued throughout the Roman rule (approximately AD 80–AD 410) and lasted until at least the sixth century, implying a measure of political stability after the Roman withdrawal.