AustLit

Carroll argues that 'Terra Australis resists mapping. Yet in its own way it indicates to its new inhabitants that they will be favoured once they find their right relationships to it. At work, play or in everyday reverie those who dwell here might then come to find themselves supported, as by a benign presence. The country provides humans with a place simply to be. It offers its blessing.' (p.38)

Lake suggests that 'Australian infatuation with the great republic ... has a longer history than most commentators realise and that [Prime Minister] Howard may be more in turne with historical tradition than some of his critics.' (p.74)

Judith Pugh uses manuscripts held at the National Library of Australia to ascertain the veracity of the text accompanying a Clifton Pugh exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2005. Pugh's investigations allow her to re-visit a range of road trips undertaken by Clifton Pugh.

Gandhi examines the place of women in Indian society. She illustrates her argument with examples from Katherine Mayo's Mother India and from the thoughts of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Salmond reflects on the government of Australian-born and raised New Zealand Prime Minister, Michael Joseph Savage.

Brian Stoddart reflects on his passion for sports culture. He writes: 'In order to understand the historical contours of sport in any given location, one needs to know a lot more than the sport itself. It is for that very reason that as much of my reading has been oustide as it has been inside sport. The point is to be driven either by the sport into the wider world or by the wider world back into the sport - and not to be driven so much by theory as by a search for meaning.'

Murray and Williamson discuss the debate surrounding the so-called 'history wars', featuring historian Keith Windshuttle.