A reader on South East Asian Islam

 

Mint condition. PB. 389pp. Amazon selling this for over $40 plus postage. Our special price is $35 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Islam is a major religion in Southeast Asia, with Indonesian Muslims comprising the largest Muslim population in the world. Events and developments since 11 September 2001 have added greater attention to Islam and its adherents in this part of the world.

This general survey of Islam in Southeast Asia is intended to inform, explain and update readers about the more significant aspects of Islam in Southeast Asia, then and now. These include the following: the geographical origins and sources by which the faith spread in this region; the social, economic and political profiles of the Muslim communities; relations between Muslims and non-Muslims and between Muslims and the State; the strands and trends that shapes the role of Islam and the Muslims in the national body politic; and the challenges confronting Muslims in confronting the vicissitudes of their lives in this era of rapid change, characterized by modernization, capitalism, secularization and globalization.          

The discussion will begin with an overview of the broad picture of Islam and the Muslims in the region as a whole, covering both Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority countries. This will be followed by case-study analysis of Islam and the Muslims in individual countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.           

Given the difficulty of writing on such a complex and contentious topic, this book attempts to present the subject matter in a manner that is sufficiently objective to scholars and yet simple and accessible enough to be readily understood by ordinary readers. 

SOLD Biography of former PM John Howard

 

SOLD

Mint condition. HB. 458pp. Amazon sells new copies for over $100. Our special price $35 including postage anywhere in Australia.

John Howard has an image problem. He isn't the strong-willed man of principle his supporters like to imagine. Neither is he the rat-cunning opportunist feared and loathed by his opponents. Most importantly, for a man often accused of zealotry of various types, he's not much into political ideas. With a few exceptions borne out of his suburban middle-class upbringing, policies are just part of his armoury. Howard is both more mundane and more complex than his public persona. He enjoys family, cricket, and running the country. But while the image of the ordinary bloke has been helpful to his enduring popularity, Howard possesses a number of uncommon strengths that have helped him reach the top, most important of these being the rare tenacity that saw him through the lean years of opposition, and through the tumultuous first two terms as prime minister.

The story of an Australian who fought at Tobruk

 

Ex-library. Mint condition. Rare book. Amazon retails at over $200. 319pp. $35 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Journey to Tobruk tells the remarkable life story of John Murray, a genuine Australian hero, on and off the battlefield. This engaging blend of military history and biography - with a strand of family history (and family secrets) woven through - follows the transformation of a raw young bushman into a courageous soldier and inspiring leader. 

A lifelong correspondence between John and his mother is a feature of the narrative; Murray's laconic tone, which never falters even as he endures the horrors of the North African campaign as a 'rat of Tobruk', is definitively Australian. 

An illegitimate child whose wealthy grazier father never acknowledged him, John was sent at age fourteen to work on an outback sheep property as a jackeroo. The harshness of this environment schooled him for survival, forging the strength and resourcefulness that were later tested in the crucible of war. While the story also follows Murray's post-war life, the focus of this moving and impeccably researched book remains John's six-year wartime odyssey, from Australia, to Tobruk, El Alamein, New Guinea and Borneo, evoked in heart-gripping detail, supported by maps and images. 

Through it all, this fascinating, brave, resilient and humane man retains an optimism and stoicism that allow him to face and conquer the horror he confronts.

Walking through Gallipoli

 

Ex-library. Mint condition. 298pp. $35 including postage anywhere in Australia.

This book normally retails for over $50.

Every year tens of thousands of Australians make their pilgrimages to Gallipoli, France and other killing fields of the Great War. It is a journey steeped in history. Some go in search of family memory, seeking the grave of a soldier lost a lifetime ago. For others, Anzac pilgrimage has become a rite of passage, a statement of what it means to be Australian. 

This book, first published in 2006, explores the memory of the Great War through the historical experience of pilgrimage. It examines the significance these 'sacred sites' have acquired in the hearts and minds of successive generations and charts the complex responses of young and old, soldier and civilian, the pilgrims of the 1920s and today's backpacker travellers. 

This book gives voice to history, retrieving a bitter-sweet testimony through interviews, surveys and a rich archival record. Innovative, courageous and often deeply moving, it explains why the Anzac legend still captivates Australia.

SOLD The definitive history of Australian Jews

 

SOLD to a lawyer in East Sydney

Mint condition. Rare book. HB. 616pp. $35 including postage anywhere in Australia