The German Democratic Republic (GDR) is often painted as a “walled-in, Russian-controlled Stasi land”. However British-German Historian Katja Hoyer's 2023 book Beyond the Wall: East Germany 1949-1990 presents a more interesting and contradictory picture of a state where socialist solidarity, secret police, central planning and barbed wire co-existed, writes Alex Salmon.
book reviews
AFL legend Nicky Winmar, in collaboration with St Kilda supporter Mathew Hardy, author of the 2004 memoir Saturday Afternoon Fever, describes the racism that Indigenous and other non-white people face both on and off the field in his autobiography My story: From bush kid to AFL legend. Alex Salmon reviews.
Alex Salmon reviews Janey Stone and Donny Gluckstein’s new book, The Radical Jewish Tradition: Revolutionaries, resistance and firebrands, which uncovers the hidden history of Jewish radicalism and solidarity between Jewish and non-Jewish communities.
February 24 marks the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ever since the war began it has generated debate on the left, which is why these two new works reflecting on the conflict are essential reading, writes Federico Fuentes.
Derek Wall reviews Hall Greenland’s biography of Michel Pablo, an Egyptian-born Greek revolutionary leader.
Lenni Brenner's edited volume, 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration With the Nazis is important reading today in the context of the United States-backed Israeli genocidal war in Gaza, writes Barry Sheppard.
Zane Alcorn reviews Kings of the New Age, the debut futuristic novel by Muloobinba/Newcastle-based author and musician Nathan Bell, set in his home town.
Maree F Roberts reviews Vincent Bevins' book If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution, which chronicles the 2010's uprisings in Egypt, Brazil, Turkey, Ukraine and elsewhere, and asks why these mass protest movements failed to bring about revolutionary change.
Suzanne James reviews Dr Rodney Symes' book, which reveals the societal abandonment of the basic human rights and bodily autonomy of our most vulnerable: dementia sufferers, the aged, the disabled and the terminally ill.
Federico Fuentes reviews Uprising: The October Rebellion in Ecuador, an exceptional look at the October 2019 anti-neoliberal insurrection from the perspective of one of its central leaders.
Alex Salmon reviews Knocking the top off: A people’s history of alcohol in Australia, edited by Alex Ettling and Iain McIntyre.
Chris Slee reviews Benjamin Fong's book, Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge, which examines the history of drug use and prohibition in the United States.
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