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Absolutely Revolting

Non Fiction

This Sin and Scandal: Australia’s population debate 1891–1911 by Neville Hicks

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June 1979, no. 11
This Sin and Scandal: Australia’s population debate 1891–1911

Perhaps no other social attitude has changed so markedly in this century as the prevailing public reaction towards the question of the limitation of population growth and the use of birth control devices.

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The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne by Graeme Davison

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October 1978, no. 5
The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne

Fifteen years ago the British urban historian Asa Briggs wrote a short but stimulating essay on Melbourne in the Victorian era in his Victorian Cities. In thirty pages he not only challenged the conventional assumptions of Australian historiography of that time (specifically deploring the lack of systematic study of the Australian city) but also threw out various ideas about how to approach Australian urban history. It took some time for historians here to take up Briggs’ challenge, but with the publication of Graeme Davison’s The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne Australian urban history has come of age.

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The Gourmet Potato by Anne Souter

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October 1978, no. 5
The Gourmet Potato

This book in praise of the potato, the most versatile and delicious of vegetables, is one I thoroughly enjoyed. Having a penchant for the potato I am an easy mark for the creative use of this lovely vegetable.

Ms Souter shows us over and over again in this well defined book how very diversified one can be with the potato. She gives general information on the types of potato grown in Australia and those types usually available at the local markets, which type to use according to methods of cooking, and growing and storing potatoes.

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The Advancement of Local Government in New South Wales 1906 to the Present by F.A. Larcombe

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September 1978, no. 4

Anyone who has attempted to write the history of a municipality will have felt the need to consult a history of local government to see how his particular area fits into the general scene. Now there is such a reference work, but only for New South Wales.

This book is subtitled A History of Local Government in New South Wales Volume 3. The other two volumes are The Origins of Local Government in New South Wales

1831-58 and The Stabilization of Local Government in New South Wales 1858-1906. This reviewer has not read these earlier volumes, let alone seen them in the bookshops, but, if they are of the same standard as the third, then they form a very important contribution to our knowledge of the third level of government in this country.

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School and Work by Christine Blakers

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September 1978, no. 4

This is a work immediately topical to a large number of teachers and students concerned (with much justification) about the lack of a proper link between school and employment after schooling. The tragedy is that unemployment often hits those in the fifteen to nineteen year old age group, who are unskilled and semi-skilled, ill prepared for the transition to a workplace increasingly demanding higher qualifications. The Technical Teachers’ Association of Victoria (TTAV) released a document in 1977 called Submission to the Committee of Enquiry into Education and Training, which acknowledges problems of this kind and calls for remedies in the form of Work Experience, greater TAFE funding, the greater co-ordination of government, business and teacher groups, formation of ‘clusters’ of educational institutions, and an end to discrimination against girls and women in the TAFE area of occupations.

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On Warwick H. Hartin, Nancy Keesing, and Helen Garner

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June 1978, no. 1

Divorce Dilemma is a book for those contemplating divorce, but it should be compulsory reading for those contemplating marriage! Warwick Hartin brings a wealth of research and practical experience to this clear and searching analysis of divorce and marriage in our society. He courageously examines the sacrosanct institution of marriage, our reasons for marrying, the divorce rate and the effect of divorce on children.

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