Comments on: Howard's End: not E. M. Forster but Van Onselen and Senior

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:29:09 +0000

Rx at #23 – thanks!

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:43:01 +0000

Not sure this is the Oz’s most egregious piece from last year but it certainly the funniest the famous Shanahan sausage column
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/dennisshanahan/index.php/theaustralian/comments/kevins_sizzle_not_snag_free
It led to the classic question was Dennis holding his own sausage when he wrote it. Also led to Oz Obergruppenfuhrer Chris Michell ringing blogger Peter Brent at Mumble to tell him they were going to do him. And resulted in three editorials railing about the bloggers and claiming The Oz was the only accepted reservoir of wisdom. Such tripe but sadly they seem to believe it down at the Oz. Drinking your own bathwater is what the folks in the US call it. See http://www.pollbludger.com/506

By: Bill Posters

Bill Posters — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:10:01 +0000

We need an alternative to journalists’ political history, personality obsessed and uncritical of sources,

You won’t get that from this book.

By: Geoff Robinson

Geoff Robinson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:59:29 +0000

I’ve written on the 1920s and 1930s and wish that people back then were writing books like the one discussed here for that period. We need an alternative to journalists’ political history, personality obsessed and uncritical of sources, and to historian’s political history, the later often marked by an excess of empathy and an idealist overemphasis on the power of discourses and rhetoric.70s Marxists such as Poulantzas posed the right questions .

By: Rx

Rx — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:15:47 +0000

Congratulations, Kim, on a thoughtful and generally excellent book review. High quality on LP!

By: GB

GB — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:38:10 +0000

…I misspelled minute.

By: GB

GB — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:34:03 +0000

This is the hardest post I’ll ever have to write….

Van Onselen has got things wrong – like his prediction that Howard would hold on to Bennelong – but I heard him give one interview way before the election where he got one thing very right: he said he thought Howard was gone the minite he brought in Work Choices.

Also, let’s have some fun. Think back to what were the most pathetic examples of grasping at straws on behalf of the Howard Government by the Oz. Anyone have any favourites? Any talking points obviously written up by the previous Government and put to press verbatim by the Oz? Any hidden demographic or tactic that would save the Man of Steel at the last minute?

By: Kim

Kim — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:04:24 +0000

Geoff, honestly it’s not all that useful for research, I’d have thought. Jackman much more so because you find out what Labor apparatchiks think, even if all sorts of criticisms of her lack of any analysis or sifting of sources can be made. With this one you’re really not getting much other than a week by week “this happened, that happened” account.

By: tony r

tony r — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:31:50 +0000

Take for instance Jules Witcover’s Campaign series (about the American presidential campaigns). Although they are fairly factual, Witcover provided some quite unique and ORIGINAL insights. Of course, there is also Hunter S. Thompson ‘Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail’?

By: Geoff Robinson

Geoff Robinson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:56:52 +0000

I’m buying it although from a research account. These type of books are useful as primary sources but little more. But has there ever been better? The post-Whitlam books are a mixed bag.