In 1992, Francis Fukuyama wrote The End of History, an epitaph to communism. He mistakenly believed that the world was entering a new age where democracy and capitalism would create ongoing prosperity, a peaceful world without the great ideological conflicts that were so destructive in the 20th century. Albrecht Durer: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; woodcut, 1496-98.Whatever else may seen…

Australia Day volley Pat Cash doesn’t want to observe Australia Day on January 26. He’s upset about ongoing poverty in many Aboriginal communities. But changing the Australia Day date will achieve nothing. Since time began, every country has experienced population interminglings which devastated the old ways. A land like Australia was never going to stay a hunter-gatherer land. The best we can do…

WITHOUT AMERICA: Australia in the New Asia by Hugh White Quarterly Essay No. 68, Paperback: 128 pagesPrice: AUD$22.99 Reviewed by John Barich This is a peculiar book in that the author, Hugh White, seems not to be aware of the QUAD – India, the United States, Japan and Australia – which means he does not see our region as Indo-Pacific.…

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Facts 2017 Edited by Jennifer Marohasy Connor Court, Redland Bay Paperback: 380 pages Price: AUD$34.95 Reviewed by William Kininmonth Climate change, as a global policy issue, burst on to the world stage in 1985. The United Nations had convened a conference of invited participants at Villach, Austria, “to assess the role of increased carbon dioxide and other…

FOOLS, FRAUDS AND FIREBRANDS: Thinkers of the New Left by Roger Scruton Bloomsbury, London Hardcover: 304 pages Price: AUD$35 Reviewed by Terry Noone Fools, Frauds and Firebrands deals with the “New Left”, influential post-World War II leftist academics and the earlier thinkers who influenced them. To Scruton these thinkers share several common views. First, “Liberty”, generally accepted outside their circle…