In recent years Anzac – an idea as much as an actual army corps – has become the dominant force within Australian history, overshadowing everything else. The commemoration of Anzac Day is bigger than ever, while Remembrance Day, VE Day, VP Day and other military anniversaries grow in significance each year. Pilgrimages to Gallipoli, the Somme and Kokoda are commonplace and popular military history dominates the bestseller lists. Anzac has seemingly become a sacred, untouchable element of the nation. In this brave and controversial book, some of Australia’s leading historians dare to criticise Anzac. They show that the Anzac obsession distorts the rest of Australia’s history. They investigate official sponsorship of Anzac through commemoration and education and show that this has mobilised it as a conservative force, often for political ends. Finally—and perhaps most devastatingly—they ask whether the grief and loss associated with bloodshed on foreign shores was all worth it.

This new edition of the best-selling introduction to US Government and Politics has been completely revised and updated to reflect the changes in the area after the election of the Barack Obama as President in November 2008. It explores whether the US political system lives up to its promise to provide freedom and equality of opportunity for all.

This second edition of Sydney’s Aboriginal Past draws on the latest historical, archaeological, geological, environmental and linguistic research, as well as oral evidence of present-day Aboriginal people, to reveal the diversity of Aboriginal life in the Sydney region before, during and for the first thirty years of British settlement. Val Attenbrow describes the different Aboriginal groups and how they lived; the resources available; the foods they ate and their means of obtaining them; their tools, weapons and equipment, and how they were made; where they camped; their shelters, clothing and personal adornment; their beliefs, ceremonial life and rituals; as well as their designs and images.

This fully revised and expanded new edition takes into account new government targets on emissions reductions and includes up-to-date calculations and extensive new graphics clearly laying out the path to a low-carbon life. Drastic reduction of carbon emissions is vital if we are to avoid a catastrophe that devastates large parts of the world. Governments and businesses have been slow to act – individuals can take the lead and reduce their impact now. How to Live a Low-Carbon Life shows how easy it is to calculate and lower your carbon footprint, taking in every aspect of our lives – from travel to home appliances to the food on our plates.

The relationship between history and fiction has always been a controversial one. Can we ever know that a historical narrative is giving us a true account of what actually happened? Provocative and fascinating, this book is an original and insightful examination of the ways in which history is – and might be – written. It traces History’s doubleness and divided nature, beginning with its founding figures, Herodotus and Thucydides, right up to the key figures of historical reflection, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Benedetto Croce, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault and Hayden White. The authors explore the challenges posed by postmodernism to history and the literary conventions of most historical writing. In this second edition they bring their history of history up to the present in their study of the History Wars and new approaches to world history and environmental history.