The
Peloponnesian War is the first work of history, the first piece of sustained political
analysis, and it reads today, 2400 years later, as if it were composed
yesterday. It reflects on the decline of 5th century BC Athens, and
how it was that the wealthiest of ancient Greek states, one with a vast and
unequalled empire, could lose a thirty-year war to relatively primitive and
small, Sparta.
Thucydides was an Athenian who fought in the war and was
unfairly exiled by his own city, but is still able to reflect dispassionately,
and sadly, on the calamitous failures of political leadership that doomed his
city. He writes with clarity and timeless insight.
This book exposes
the breathtaking transformation to by far the most successful sporting
organization in Australia, the Australian Football League, over the last twenty
years. Warner’s is a cautionary tale relevant to all sports, and especially to
the football codes around the world.
The Boys’ Club catalogues unethical behaviour of breath-taking scope and gall,
imposed by three men. Warner recounts numerous cases of vindictive threat,
intimidation, lying, and bullying. And a misogynistic culture at AFL
headquarters.
Ex-Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett, lamented they
don’t report to anyone. They appoint puppets and yes-men to highly paid
positions around them, forming a Praetorian Guard that protects the core
oligarchy, which pays itself lavishly.
The Boys' Club is the must-read inside story behind the power and politics of the AFL, Australia's biggest sport. Revealing how a fledgling state administrative body evolved into the Australian Football League and its meteoric rise to become one of the richest and most powerful organisations in the land, award-winning investigative journalist Mick Warner delivers a fascinating insight into key figures and their networks. Tracking the rise of the AFL and its supremos, The Boys' Club lifts the lid on the scandals, secrets and deal-making that have shaped this iconic Australian game.
'Cannot recommend this book highly enough ... The…
Brett Mason reveals how two childhood friends
from Adelaide, medical researcher Howard Florey and physicist Mark Oliphant
initiated the three most significant scientific and industrial projects of the
Second World War.
Manufacturing penicillin, developing microwave radar, and
building the atomic bomb gave the Allies the edge and ultimate victory over
Germany and Japan.
More than just a story of scientific
discovery, Wizards of Oz tells a remarkable tale of secret
missions, international intrigue, and triumph against all odds. Mason tells how
Oliphant and Florey were also instrumental in convincing a reluctant United
States to develop and deploy these three breakthrough inventions in time to
change the course of the war.
Christ the Saviour is no more. Gone is the
Redeemer, who, for two thousand years made ordinary lives meaningful. In the
modern West, the life of the most significant figure in the history of the
culture has largely been forgotten. Further, most find any mention of God bafflingly
antiquated.
What remains? In the Western tradition, a
‘saviour syndrome’ impels humans to find someone, or some equivalent, to show
the way to a better life and counter the quintessentially modern ordeal of
unbelief. Drawing on literature, history, and a range of popular culture
sources from the Sopranos to Fleabag, this book demonstrates how
we are constantly investing people around us—teachers, leaders, performers,
athletes, even children—with transcendental qualities that we look up to.
