I read this book a couple of times long many moons ago but still must concur with those who say it's a great book. The author, John Greenway, enflamed the passions of students at his university and he claimed he was, by their lights, the campus reactionary. Alack! The students did not know that in a review of one of his early books, American Folksongs of Protest, he was described by the Soviet Appartchik reviewer as "America's most progressive folklorist." Gotta love the dichotomy! Greenway was also chummy with Woody Guthrie, Aunt Molly Jackson and a folksinger in his own right. In fine, Dylan himself even pilfered one of his songs.

The author, John Greenway, was my professor. This book is without doubt his masterpiece, his magnum opus. It takes the reader on a profound journey into the heart of Australia, explaining and teaching about Culture itself, the great driving engine of all human social organization. His chapter on religion is succinct and potent, and perceptive students will be indelibly changed by its insights. Dr. Greenway spent 15 years in the desert among the aborigines. His amusing tales of the characters he met and studied are almost mythic as described, a testimony to Greenway's powerful literary style (he was a student of Anglo-Saxon literature and folksongs, and studied under the great MacEdward Leach at the University of Pennsylvania). His storytelling ability is his strongest asset. But more important, the reader will be lifted above his own culture to see why people act as they do. I predict that this book will be republished some day and become a recognized text in cultural anthropology. Dr. Greeenway was a pioneer, and far ahead of his time.

I don't know that I've ever read a better dive book or travel guide. The author covers every minute detail, and somehow, it still reads well--a fascinating and well-treated subject. David Leonard shows great wit and a solid knowledge of his subject.

The photographs are amazing, too.

Emma is a lovely book. It combines the story of an immigrant Italian woman's life with traditional Italian recipes. Emma's story is typical of many women who emigrated from Italy to both the United States and Australia. She and her mother join her father in Australia after many years; she later marries another Italian immigrant who is interned by the Australian government during the war. In the first part of the book Michal Bosworth mainly just tells Emma's story, while in the second, she and Emma engage in lengthy discussions about food. This is an ideal gift for mothers or people just interested in food and/immigration.

This book is excellent. It describes the life of an italian immigrant woman in Australia. Emma and her parents arrive in Australia before WW2, like many other migrants. During the war she falls in love with, and then pregnant to, Peter, another Italian, who is interned by the Australian government. Most of the book describes her life with Peter, their children, their other relatives. It is a moving account which chimes with many immigrants' experiences. Later editions of the book also contain recipes by Emma and the author, Michal Bosworth. This book makes a great present for anyone interested in Italian culture, food, memory, autobiography, families or immigration.

This is one of those books that 99% of people will find an interesting read, and the other 1% will be overjoyed that it was published. I fall into the latter category. Being an avid follower of the Australian forces in France during WWI, I am always on the lookout for books on the subject. This is one of the few books I've read that takes the historic facts of the war, and incorporates them into a practical tour of the battlefields. The tales of war are extremely well researched and presented, maps and photos add much to the text, and nice touches such as a chapter describing the inscriptions on Australian war graves are very moving. Even if you are not specifically interested in Australian movements during the war, this book has alot of interesting information. If you are planning to visit the battlefields of France, DO NOT LEAVE HOME WITHOUT THIS BOOK!

Last summer, a friend and I went on a road trip in WA. We hadn't made any plans for accommadations when we got there and all we had was a 4X4 camper and our trusty Lonely Planet Guide! We were able to plan out our whole trip using this book as we went along. I suggest it to everyone going, even if you want to plan before. It also has a lot of historical and everyday information, that can complement a trip. TAKE THIS WITH YOU!

The marine fishes of North-Western Australia : a field guide for anglers and divers : a general guide to inshore fishes of tropical Australia.

Mother's Taxi focuses on how women support and facilitate sport played by others. Thompson's study, which is presented in the book, is an area of research that not many social scientists have yet explored. Her book was easy to read, with several stories told by mothers of athletes, wives of athletes, and female athletes. Men's roles are briefly discussed, but Thompson wanted her primary focus to be on women, an area of very little research. Much of the work done by women to facilitate sport is done privately. This book recognizes their efforts and attempts to make it known to the public eye.

In the 1970s, an Anglo-Australian advisor to the Pintupi Aboriginal people of the remote Western Desert of Australia suggested that they transfer some of their traditional designs to modern European painting media (notably acrylic). The result was astonishing: a seemingly endless stream of brilliant, intense, moving paintings emerging from one of the most remote and impoverished places on earth. By incredible good fortune, Fred Myers, one of the most sensitive and wide-ranging ethnographers in anthropology, was there almost from the birth of the movement, recording what happened. This is his authoritative book on the meteoric rise of an art style that has achieved world reknown.
The art is enmeshed in Aboriginal religion, which in turn is enmeshed in the land. Most of the paintings are of religious landscapes. Myers is at his best in explaining the differences between Aboriginal views of the paintings (basically, as religious art connected with land and land rights) and westerners' views (basically, as beautiful pictures). Myers does not make the comparison, but it is rather like looking at Italian Renaissance religious scenes. You can't fully appreciate what's going on (however much you may enjoy the color scheme) if you have no idea who Jesus, Mary, and Mary Magdalene were.
Other books have focused on the art and its makers (not only Pintupi; other groups had their own artistic triumphs, and now I am told that most of the artists in Australia belong to the tiny percentage who are of Aboriginal background). Myers thus concerns himself more with the reception that the paintings had in the wider world, and the whole process of winning recognition as "art" for what was once dismissed as mere "aboriginal craft" items--a racist dismissal. Myers is incredibly fair-minded (more than I would have been) to all parties, in the face of this, but sometimes anger inevitably breaks through; for example, after reporting one particularly dismissive review, he says "Here, then, were outsiders who knew more than the participants but did not bother to talk with them, outsiders whose representational practices directly thwarted the representations of Aboriginal painters" (p. 292).
Racism took several tactics. First and most odious was attacking the marketing of the paintings as "commodification" or "commoditization"--translation: it's fine for elite white artists to sell their stuff, but Immoral and Sinful for poor and nonwhite folks to make an honest dollar the same way. Related were attacks on the lack of "authenticity" of the art because old-time Aboriginals didn't have acrylic; again, no one attacks elite white artists for using media that Leonardo da Vinci didn't use. Then there was the early consignment of the art to "natural history" museums! (This had changed by the early 1990s.) Another tactic was glib talk of Aboriginals as "the Other," to be "situated in a discourse of alterity" or of "cultural construction" instead of treated as humans. (Not only do some perform the "othering," but also those who criticize it, can bury the whole matter in floods of jargon--not much help, in the event.) The last word on the subject of "the Other" was said long ago by Rimbaud: "je est en autre" ("I is another"); after that, we need no more on the issue. Add in patronizing bureaucrats, crooked dealers, and well-meaning but uncomprehending viewers, and the mix is such that one wonders how the Aboriginals keep going.
There is much more in the book (over 400 dense pages). Many less dramatic points are of more interest to the theorist. They defy summary here. Defying summary, too, is Myers' wonderful account of his own experiences in the Western Desert and in the urban art world.
The only problem with the book is that much of it is (necessarily, I fear) couched in the lingo of the art-criticism and culture-studies world--a lingo noted more for preciosite' than for comprehensibility.
Myers demolishes the simplistic rhetoric of "resistance" and "accommodation." What emerges is something far more powerful. Humans sometimes confront the most horrible oppression, racism, and brutality by transcending it--by marshalling all their resources in a cascade of concentrated brilliance that "outshines the sun." Delta blues is one example (and the source of my phrase). Roma music is another. In art, we have the explosion of Northwest Coast carving, painting and printmaking over the last 30 years. These and many other similar cases may be the best plea we have for redeeming the human species in spite of our countless sins.

His brother, James, wrote 'Revolution by Night'. Do not go past this book if you want to learn about Aboriginal Art; a book compiled by a bloke who loves the Aboriginal people.