AustLit

'This is big-picture history. The fundamental right to citizenship is about as big as history can get. In a year that witnessed the conclusion to the commemoration (more often verging on celebration) of the centenary of World War I and its accompanying literature, it is invigorating to read a book that so eloquently and subtly challenges the weary emphasis on the Anzac legend as the defining moment of the first two decades of twentieth-century Australian history. Instead, we have an account of the engrossing struggle of Australian women to win the vote in their own country and the crucial role they played in the British suffrage campaign.' (Introduction)

'This book introduces us to a little known artist, playwright and poet who began her career as a commercial artist in Sydney and who settled into a creative life in Ipswich in the 1950s and 1960s. This beautifully produced volume has been compiled and edited by Joanne Holliman from the archive at the Fryer Library. It has been organised around the successive stages of Helen’s artistic development and is replete with photographs, colour plates and other illustrations that show how rich and various Helen’s creative life was.' (Introduction)

'When Melissa Fagan stands before the famed McWhirters building in Valley Corner, she tries ‘to decipher what this immutable object, this icon, means to the city and me’, but finds that ‘the building is in my way’ (2018: 8). In this book, she tries to move beyond the Art Deco department store to examine the lives and work of the women who were connected to it by blood and marriage. Weaving together research, reportage, imagined lives and personal memoir, she illuminates the impact of wealth, social expectations and loss across five generations of women.' (Introduction)

'This book presents valuable insight into the lived experiences of Muslim women in Australia, highlighting the ways they organise their identities and obligations within the broader community while ‘staying true to their faith’ (2018: xiv). Most importantly, the book emphasises the fact that ‘Islam is not practised in a vacuum’ (2018: xv–xvi), along with the need to recognise that the Muslim community in Australia is not homogenous — that there are complexities that arise from the ethnic, cultural and geographic diversity present within communities (2018: 205).' (Introduction)