My book review appeared in last weekend’s Australian newspaper: El Jefe: The Stalking of Chapo Guzman By Alan Feuer Simon and Schuster, 256pp, $32.99 On the day in February 2019 that the world’s most notorious drug cartel boss, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was found guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom, the prosecution was ecstatic. Richard P.…
Articles in The Australian
Why we should be alert to the surge of fascist hate
My review of the fine new book by writer Jeff Sparrow, Fascists Among Us: Online Hate and the Christchurch Massacre, was published in last weekend’s Australian newspaper. It’s about the 2019 Christchurch attack and the growing rise of fascism. Here’s a PDF of the review: Jeff Sparrow’s Person X marks rise of ecofascism
How to fight the toxic culture wars and win
My book review appears in the… Weekend Australian newspaper with the great headline: “What did you do in the culture wars, daddy-o?: As soon as Donald Trump unexpectedly won the White House in 2016, commentators and instant experts claimed it was because of economic anxiety. White, working-class Americans voted for the Republican candidate in greater numbers…
Challenging those self-serving media narratives since 9/11
My book review in yesterday’s Weekend Australian newspaper:… In The Operators, a great book on the war in Afghanistan, the American journalist Michael Hastings is scathing of reporters who spend their lives praising generals and socialising with them. Hastings exposed the arrogance and childish antics of the then head of US operations in Afghanistan, Stanley…
Destroying US democracy from within
My book review in The Australian newspaper: Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America By Nancy MacLean Scribe, $35, 368pp As Hurricane Irma was pounding the US, President Donald Trump made a major announcement. He wanted huge tax cuts for the wealthiest members of society. Standing alongside Secretary…
The nightmare of today's Western-backed Rwanda
My book review in The Australian: Rwandan President Paul Kagame is feted across the world, celebrated for rescuing his country after the 1994 genocide and bringing stability to a devastated nation. Kagame’s government has received billions of dollars in aid and weapons for more than 20 years from the US, Israel, Britain and the EU,…
What Somali pirates explain about imperialism
My following book review appears in today’s Weekend Australian newspaper: Imperialism still casts a dark shadow over modern Africa. Former colonial powers France, Britain, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Germany largely spend their aid dollars in nations they used to rule. Oxfam France’s Christian Reboul told The Guardian this makes sense for Paris “because the former…
How and why the "war on drugs" kills millions
My following book review appeared in the Weekend Australian on 28 February: Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs By Johann Hari Bloomsbury, 390pp, $29.99 The numbers are staggering. More than two million American citizens are in prison, about 25 per cent of the world’s incarcerated population. Many are…
The Australian review of "Prisoner X"
My following review appears in yesterday’s Weekend Australian newspaper: Understanding the insular and tribal Melbourne Jewish community has fascinated sociologists for decades. With one of the largest concentrations of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel, proudly Zionist and with strong Jewish day schools, it’s a world that created Ben Zygier, the Australian Mossad agent who committed…
When chocolate isn’t just about eating and enjoying
My following review appears in today’s Weekend Australian newspaper: Chocolate Wars: From Cadbury to Kraft, 200 Years of Sweet Success and Bitter Rivalries, by Deborah Cadbury, Harper Press, 340pp, $35. Deborah Cadbury is a descendant of the Quaker family whose name has become synonymous with chocolate. In this entertaining and insightful book she reveals just…