Richard F Hamilton’s Who Voted for Hitler is a great example of how historical sociology should be done-open mindedly, based on careful examination of the evidence.

By carefully going through the evidence, Hamilton builds up a nuanced picture of voting support for the NSDAP. He makes it quite clear that the Nazis were building strength and ( Read more... )

In my review of Bob Murray's splendid 150 Years of Spring St I mentioned his comment that in Victoria women were only allowed to be jurors in 1966. This turns out to be a bit of an exaggeration.

It's still a fine book.

John Dickson’s A Spectator’s Guide to Jesus is a very accessible statement of current historical understanding of Jesus from a Christian perspective.

With an introduction by Peter Garrett MP, each chapter examines a different aspect of Jesus of the Gospels and the New Testament. Each chapter covers a different topic, clearly with en engaging ( Read more... )

James Ault’s Spirit and Flesh: Life in a Fundamentalist Baptist Church is a book by a sociologist about his study of a fundamentalist Baptist church. A study which became the basis for an award-winning documentary, Born Again.

It is a very personal book. ( personal )

The first thing one notices about David Nimmon’s The Soul Beneath the Skin: The Unseen Hearts and Habits of Gay Men is that it is written by a very funny and witty man. Readers with an interest in Queer Theory might want to glance at the theoretic note on page 221 and the use of the word “gay” in these pages. For less academic types, who hear ( Read more... )

The other book I picked up from the second-hand table in Geelong was Disobedience by Naomi Alderman ( Read more... )

The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by archaeologists Neil Asher Silberman and Israel Finkelstein is a highly readable synthesis of the discoveries of archaeology with Biblical scholarship ( Read more... )

Richard Elliott Friedman’s Who Wrote the Bible is a highly accessible explication of (his) version of the Documentary Hypothesis about the authorship of the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) or Torah. Given that the books include a description of the death of Moses, the claim-enforced by religious authority for ( Read more... )

The latest Corinna Chapman, Trick or Treat is in the bookshops, rather ahead of its official launch (8 Sepember, at Sun Bookshop by Hon. Barry Jones).

As one may gather from the title, Halloween or, more accurately, Samhain is central to the story. The prosperity of the Earthly Delights bakery is threatened by the opening of a franchise bakery a ( Read more... )

Albert J. Bernstein’s Emotional Vampires: Dealing With People Who Drain You Dry which mishymoocow put me onto is the best extended use of an analytical metaphor I have come across ( Read more... )