Reviews

A Liberal Nation: The Liberal Party and Australian Politics, Marian Simms, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger 1982, pp. 224. $24.95, $11.95 (paper)

Robert Manne (ed) The New Conservatism in Australia, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1982, pp. 290. $25.00, $9.99 (paper)

Kate White, John Cain and Victorian Labor 1917–1957, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1982, pp. 208. $24.95, $13.95 (paper)

Michael James (ed) The Constitutional Challenge; Essays on the Australian Constitution, constitutionalism and parliamentary practice, St Leonards, The Centre for Independent Studies, 1982, pp. 166. $7.95 (paper)

John R. Nethercote (ed) Parliament and Bureaucracy: Parliamentary Scrutiny of Administration: prospects and problems in the 1980s, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1982, pp. 363, $24.95, $11.95 (paper)

Mary Dickenson, Democracy in Trade Unions, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1982, pp. 249. $29.95

Robert Murray and Kate White, The Ironworkers: A History of the Federated Ironworkers’ Association of Australia, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1982, pp. 341. $24.95, $11.95 (paper)

Chris Fisher, Innovation and Australian Industrial Relations: Aspects of the Arbitral Experience 1945–1980, Canberra, Croom Helm, 1983, pp. 226. $24.95, $12.95 (paper)

Helen Palmer's Outlook, edited by Doreen Bridges, with an introduction by Robin Gollan, Helen Palmer Committee, Sydney, 1982, pp. 220. $9.95

Ian Turner, Room For Manoeuvre, Writings on History, Politics, Ideas and Play, selected and edited by Leonie Sandercock and Stephen Murray‐Smith, Drummond, Richmond, Victoria, 1982, pp. 335. $15.95

Len Fox, Broad Left, Narrow Left, Sydney, Author and APCOL, 1982, pp. 233. $19.95, $12.95 (paper)

What Rough Beast? The State and Social Order in Australian History, Sydney Labour History Group, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1982, pp.282. $22.50, $9.95 (paper)

Stephen Holt, Manning Clark and Australian History 1915–1963, University of Queensland Press, 1982, pp.207. $14.95.

W.E.H. Stanner, White Man Got no Dreaming: Essays 1938–1973, Canberra, ANU Press, 1979, pp. 389. $25.00

Alan Powell, Far Country, a Short History of the Northern Territory, Melbourne University Press, 1982, pp. 301 $24.50, $14.95 (paper)

Robert M. Worcester & Martin Harrop (eds) Political Communications : The General Election Campaign of 1979, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 177. $49.95

John Western & Colin Hughes The Mass Media in Australia, 2nd Edn, University of Queensland Press, 1983, pp. 209. $19.95, $9.95 (paper)

Henry Mayer, Pauline Garde & Sandra Gibbons The Media : Questions and Answers ’Australian Surveys 1942–1980’, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1983 pp. 206. $29.95

Gavin Souter, Company of Heralds, Melbourne University Press, 1981, pp. 667. $24.50

Ronald Mendelsohn, Fair Go, Melbourne, Penguin, 1982, pp. 228. $7.95

Richard V. Cardew, John V. Langdale and David C. Rich (eds) Why Cities Change: Urban Development and Economic Change in Sydney, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 307. $24.95, $11.95 (paper)

Self, Peter, Planning the Urban Region, Sydney, George Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp. 174. $35.95, $16.50 (paper)

Robert Birrell, Doug Hill and John Stanley (eds) Quarry Australia! Social and environmental perspectives on managing the nation's resources, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1982, pp. 366. $12.95 (paper)

Dean Jaensch, The Australian Party System, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1983, pp.235. $11.95 (paper)

Grant Harman and Don Smart (eds) Federal Intervention in Australian Education: Past, Present and Future, Melbourne, Georgian House, 1982, pp. 197. $12.50 (paper)

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

R.L. Mathews (ed) Public Policies in Two Federal Countries: Canada and Australia. Canberra, Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations, Australian National University, 1982, pp. 298. np.

F.G. Castles (ed) The Impact of Parties : Politics and Policies in Democratic Capitalist States, London, Sage Publications, 1982, pp. 370. US $25.00

Greg Crough and Ted Wheelwright, Australia: A Client State, Ringwood, Penguin Books, 1982, pp. 255. $7.95 (paper)

Hilde T. Himmelweit, Patrick Humphreys, Marianne Jaeger, and Michael Katz, How Voters Decide, A longitudinal study of political attitudes and voting extending over fifteen years, Academic Press, 1981, pp. 276. £14.20. $38.45, $18.55 (paper)

Peter Limqueco and Bruce McFarlane (eds) Neo‐Marxist Theories of Development, London and Canberra, Croom Helm, 1983, pp. 220. $18.25 (paper)

J.A.A. Stockwin, Japan: Divided Politics in a Growth Economy, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982, pp. 333. £15.50, £8.50 (paper)

John L.S. Girling, Thailand: Society and Politics, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, pp. 306. $41.95

Alan W. Ward, Land and Politics in New Caledonia, Canberra, Department of Political and Social Change Monograph, Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU, 1982, pp. 86. $6.00

John Lawrey, The Cross of Lorraine in the South Pacific—Australia and the Free French Movement 1940–1942, Canberra, Journal of Pacific History, 1982, pp. 142. $8.50

Peter McDonough, Power and Ideology in Brazil, Princeton University Press, 1981, pp. 326. US$33.00; US$10.70 (paper)

Fouad Ajami, The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice Since 1967, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 220. £12.50

Alexander S. Cudsi and Ali E. Hillal Dessouki (eds) Islam and Power, London, Croom Helm, 1981, pp. 204. $19.95

Steven L. Spiegel (ed) The Middle East and the Western Alliance London, George Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp. 252. $39.95

K.P. Misra(ed), Afghanistan in Crisis, London, Croom Helm, 1981, pp. 150. $20.25

John Ardagh, France in the 1980s: The Definitive Book, Harmondsworth, Penguin, pp. 672. $10.95

Jan F. Triska and Charles Gati (eds) Blue‐Collar Workers in Eastern Europe, London, Allen and Unwin, 1981, pp.302. $38.50, $18.95 (paper)

Francis A. Beer, Peace Against War, San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Company, 1981, pp. 447.

Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 272. £15

Seweryn Bialer and Thane Gustafson (eds) Russia at the Crossroads: The 26th congress of the CPSU, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 223. $49.95

Hannes Adomeit, Soviet Risk‐Taking and Crisis Behaviour, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 377. $75.00

Frank Field, Poverty and Politics: The Inside Story of the Child Poverty Action Group's Campaigns in the 1970s, London, Heinemann, 1982, (paper)

Dennis Kavanagh (ed) The Politics of the Labour Party, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp. 228. $13.95 (paper)

Michael Meacher, Socialism with a Human Face, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp. 295. $42.50

Stanley Hoffman and Paschalis Kitromilides (eds) Culture and Society in Contemporary Europe: A Casebook Harvard, Centre for European Studies, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1981, pp.238. $49.95, $22.50 (paper)

Peter Lange and Maurizio Vanicelli (eds) The Communist Parties of Italy, France and Spain—Postwar Change and Continuity: A Casebook, Centre for European Studies, Harvard, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1981, pp. 385. $62.50, $27.50 (paper)

Janice Jiggins, Caste and Family in the Politics of the Sinhalese 1947–1976, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1979, pp. 189. £15.50

Michael Roberts, Caste Conflict and Elite Formation—the Rise of a Karava Elite in Sri Lanka, 1500–1931, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 382. £30.00 Donald L. Horowitz, Coup Theories and Officers’ Motives—Sri Lanka in Comparative Perspective, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1980, pp. 238. US$25.00, US$11.75 (paper)

Stewart Clegg, Geoff Dow and Paul Boreham (eds) The State, Class and the Recession, London and Canberra, Croom Helm, 1983, pp.331. $29.25

Mike Muller, The Health of Nations: A North‐South Investigation, London, Faber and Faber, 1982, pp.255. $10.95

Richard L. Merritt and Bruce M. Russett (eds) From National Development to Global Community: Essays in Honor of Karl W. Deutsch, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1981, pp.480. $50, $23.95 (paper)

Robert G. Burgess (ed) Field Research: A Sourcebook and Field Manual, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 286. $68, $35 (paper)

Jean Bethke Elshtain, Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought, Princeton University Press, 1981.

Jean Bethke Elshtain (ed) The Family in Political Thought, Brighton, Harvester Press, 1982.

Keith Graham (ed) Contemporary Political Philosophy: Radical Studies, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp.159. £12.50, £4.50 (paper)

Robert E. Goodin, Political Theory and Public Policy, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1982, pp.249. US$27.50

Gerald F. Gaus, The Modem Liberal Theory of Man, London, Croom Helm, 1983, pp.312. $29.25

R.D. (Bob) Jessop, The Capitalist State: Marxist Theories and Methods, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1982, pp. 296. £5.95 (paper)

John Passmore, The Limits of Government (1981 Boyer Lectures), Sydney, ABC, 1982, pp. 62. $2.95

Russell Jacoby, Dialectic of Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 202. £15

Howard Margolis, Selfishness, Altruism & Rationality, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 194. £18

Michael Oakeshott, On History and Other Essays, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1983, pp.198 £12.

David Miller and Larry Siedentop (eds) The Nature of Political Theory, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1983, pp.261 $43.75

Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal and Hilary Wainwright, Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism, London, Merlin Press, 1979, pp. 253. (paper)

Helen Roberts (ed) Doing Feminist Research, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981. £4.95 (paper) Margrit Eichler, The Double Standard, London, Croom Helm, 1980. $9.95 (paper)

Kaye Hargreaves, Women at Work, Ringwood, Victoria, Penguin, 1982, pp. 402. $6.95     

On the Origins and Dissemination of Domesticated Sorghum and Pearl Millet across Africa and into India: a View from the Butana Group of the Far Eastern Sahel

Four decades have passed since Harlan and Stemler (1976) proposed the eastern Sahelian zone as the most likely center of Sorghum bicolor domestication. Recently, new data on seed impressions on Butana Group pottery, from the fourth millennium BC in the southern Atbai region of the far eastern Sahelian Belt in Africa, show evidence for cultivation activities of sorghum displaying some domestication traits. Pennisetum glaucum may have been undergoing domestication shortly thereafter in the western Sahel, as finds of fully domesticated pearl millet are present in southeastern Mali by the second half of the third millennium BC, and present in eastern Sudan by the early second millennium BC. The dispersal of the latter to India took less than 1000 years according to present data. Here, we review the middle Holocene Sudanese archaeological data for the first time, to situate the origins and spread of these two native summer rainfall cereals in what is proposed to be their eastern Sahelian Sudan gateway to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean trade.     

The white essential subject: race,ethnicity, and the Irish in post-war Britain

This article focuses on the history of Irish migrants in Birmingham in an attempt to enhance historical understanding of race, ethnicity and ‘whiteness’ in post-war Britain. To do so, it will look at two Birmingham histories: the Young Christian Workers’ Association’s report on the Welfare of Irish migrants in 1951, and anti-Irish violence in the aftermath of the Birmingham Pub Bombings of 1974. It will consider the extent to which Irish immigrants were victims of racism, what this meant in terms of discrimination and identity, and, in particular, how Irish experiences corresponded to that of black and Asian migrants.     

Conceptualising European Privatisation Processes After the Great Recession

A wave of privatisation is unfolding in Europe in the wake of the financial crisis, but it has yet to receive serious scholarly attention. This paper examines the case of Ireland, where an austerity strategy and European Union International Monetary Fund bailout conditionality have given impetus to the transfer of public assets to the private sector. Theoretically, the paper explains the roots of the phenomenon with reference to a reformulated concept of “accumulation by dispossession” whose usefulness lies in emphasising the politico‐economic drivers of privatisation, which have been neglected in the mainstream literature. A typology is presented that argues that accumulation by dispossession manifests itself, in practice, through four main processes: (1) private repossession of assets nationalised during the financial crisis; (2) restructuring of state‐owned enterprises; (3) commodification of assets and services hitherto located outside the market; and (4) privatised stimulus through public–private partnerships. The paper's framework should be useful to conceptualise ongoing privatisation processes in other European countries.     

The neo-liberalization of strategic spatial planning and the overproduction of development in Celtic Tiger Ireland

This paper argues that the role of the planning system in the overproduction of development during Ireland’s Celtic Tiger needs to be analysed as instructive of contemporary neo-liberal transformations of strategic spatial planning. Leaning on a Foucauldian governmentality perspective, the genealogy of modern Irish planning practice is explored to elucidate how neo-liberal rationalities became embedded in institutional norms through consensus-driven partnership governance. The central premise is that the turn to ‘strategic spatial planning’, particularly with the publication of the National Spatial Strategy in 2002, was usefully exploited to mask the spatial politics of the ever-increasing need for the state to facilitate capital switching into built environment formation in order to maintain conditions of high economic growth. Using the empirical case study of housing development in the ‘Upper Shannon’ region and large-scale commercial development in County Meath, it is argued that this contributed to a destabilization of the planning system and an abandonment of basic planning principles. The paper concludes that, in the context of the new and deeply uneven economic geography of post-crisis Ireland, there is an urgent need for a repoliticized critique of normative interpretations of strategic spatial planning practice in order for more progressive practices to emerge.     

‘Constructing’ Ethical Mineral Supply Chains in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The Case of Malawian Fair Trade Rubies

Over the past decade, sales of Fair Trade agro‐products have risen sharply, fuelled by innovative marketing campaigns that use imagery to ‘connect’ Western consumers to impoverished farmers in developing countries. The success of Fair Trade has led to speculation over whether its portfolio could be broadened to include non‐agricultural products, a debate which, in recent years, has focused heavily on the precious minerals and stones being extracted by impoverished artisans. A lack of policy oversight, however, has resulted in Fair Trade being interpreted very differently in this context. In the absence of certified, internationally‐recognized guidelines for the implementation of Fair Trade mineral schemes, designers have drawn inspiration from a global mining development agenda that has become preoccupied with anti‐corruption and traceability. This article draws on the case of Malawi's Nyala^TM ruby, described as a ‘Fair Trade Gem’ by its supplier, to illustrate how ethical mineral programmes are potentially being misbranded as Fair Trade. Although the scheme delivering Nyala^TM ruby to markets is supplying a traceable commodity, in the process helping to alleviate consumers’ concerns about conflict minerals, it seems to be providing very little benefit to poor producers — the primary objective of Fair Trade.