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Melbourne University Press Melbourne University Press i(A36910 works by) (Organisation) assertion (a.k.a. MUP; Melbourne University Publishing)
Born: Established: 1922 Melbourne, Victoria, ;
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1 MUP Australian Lives Melbourne University Press (publisher), series - publisher biography
Interpretations Melbourne University Press (publisher), Keith Ruthven (editor), series - publisher 'The Interpretations series provides clearly written and up-to-date introductions to recent theories and critical practices in the humanities and social sciences.' http://www.mup.unimelb.edu.au/Interpretations.html (Sighted 26/07/04)
1 y separately published work icon Charles Strong's Australian Church Marion Maddox , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 2021 23074098 2021 single work biography

'The untold story of Reverend Dr Charles Strong and progressive Christian activism

'In the optimistic years preceding Federation in 1901, the Melbourne-based Australian Church emerged as a progressive Christian movement to serve a brand-new nation. Galvanising many members of Melbourne's social and political elite, activist Reverend Dr Charles Strong imagined the Australian Church becoming the national church, while addressing a broad social and political reform agenda, inspired by both theological and social liberalism. Their approach was described as 'progressive', 'liberal', 'radical' and 'socialist'. Strong and his wife, Janet, founded or led organisations for causes ranging from peace to penal reform. They fought for urban slum improvements, rural village settlements, childcare and adult education, the minimum wage and women's suffrage. Some organisations endure today; others left lasting legacies in Australian methods of addressing social inequality. Bringing together leading scholars of history, politics and religion, Charles Strong's Australian Church celebrates the church's radicalism, while taking account of debates and obstacles on the path to social reform.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 y separately published work icon Between the Last Oasis and the Next Mirage : Writings on Australia Guy Rundle , Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2021 22592383 2021 multi chapter work essay

'With sharp wit and a discerning eye, political commentator Guy Rundle enlightens and entertains, drawing back the curtain on the iconic moments in Australian politics of the 2010s

'From the coal blockade frontline of the Liverpool Plains to Hobart's Cat and Fiddle arcade, from being on the road with last chance Malcolm Turnbull to the fossil fuel fantasies of Adaniland in the north, Guy Rundle gives a first-hand history of Australia in the 2010s, after the brief and hopeful haha insurgency of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era and the descent of another decade of reaction. Through multiple elections, rubbing shoulders with the major players and upstart independents, Rundle describes a country changing and fracturing as the global wave of populism swept across conventional politics, and the culture wars solidified. He goes into battle, both against a corrupt, cynical and nihilistic right, and an increasingly elitist and fantastical progressivism. And he steps back into the past, looking at how we got to here, in memoirs and analyses of the shifting personal, cultural and political faultlines of the past half century.

'Between the Last Oasis and the Next Mirage is a raw, thoughtful, very funny and sometimes moving account of a nation dependent on the continuing good graces of history and the plain old dumb luck that is the land's curse.'(Publication summary)

1 1 y separately published work icon The Most I Could Be The Most I Could Be : A Renaissance Story Dale Kent , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 2021 22010297 2021 single work autobiography

'In a memoir spanning continents and a lifetime of scholarship, a trailblazing historian recounts her struggles since the 1960s in her search for fulfilment both as a scholar and a woman.

'Of all the exhilarating slogans that galvanised women in the 1970s, determined to change ourselves and the world, the one that really inspired me was: 'Be the most that you can!' Even as a small girl, I was eager to be the most I possibly could. This desire drove my life.'

'Raised in an aspirational Australian working-class family of Christian Scientists, in the 1960s Dale Kent embarked on a lifelong struggle to fulfil the desire of many women of her generation-to be the most she could be. Despite discrimination and self-doubt, she escaped her controlling family and established an international career as a historian of the Florentine Renaissance. But she failed to liberate herself from the crippling views of women, love and sex she had internalised in childhood. Craving independence and sexual fulfilment, Kent left her child with her husband and started afresh in the United States on an academic  road trip that took in Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton and the National Gallery of Art. Her story, both poignant and darkly comical, traces a counterpoint between increasing professional success, a desperate search for a sexual soulmate and a way back to her daughter.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 y separately published work icon The Forgotten Menzies The Forgotten Menzies : The World Picture of Australia's Longest-Serving Prime Minister Stephen Chavura , Greg Melleuish , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 2021 22010220 2021 single work biography

'A new portrait of Australia's longest-serving prime minister that will transform your understanding of the beginnings of the Liberal Party.

'Sir Robert Gordon Menzies was the founder of the Liberal Party of Australia. As well as being Australia's longest-serving prime minister, Menzies was the most thoughtful. Menzies' world picture was one where Britishness was the overriding normative principle, and in which cultural puritanism and philosophical idealism were pervasive. Unless we remember this cultural background of Menzies' thought then we will seriously misunderstand what he meant by the very project of liberalism. The Forgotten Menzies argues that Menzies' greatest aspiration was to protect the ideals of cultural puritanism Australia from two kinds of materialism: communism; and the mindset encouraged by affluence and technological progress. Central to Menzies' project of cultural and civilisational preservation was the university, an institution he spent much of his career extolling and expanding. The Forgotten Menzies makes an important contribution to the history of political thought and ideology in Australia, as to understanding the largely forgotten but rich intellectual origins of the Liberal Party.'

Source : publisher's blurb

1 1 y separately published work icon My Forests : Travels with Trees Janine Burke , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 2021 22009944 2021 single work autobiography travel

Join award-winning author and art historian Janine Burke in this enchanting and illuminating meander along forest trails within art, myth, history and present day.

The narratives in My Forests are a pleasure to read; like strolling down a meandering track through the trees, you never quite know what you'll discover around that next bend. Travel the ancient Incense Road with the Biblical Magi. Enjoy the dancing Olive groves of Tuscany and read of 'sleeping' Silver Birches. Witness the spectacular tree houses of the Korowai of West Papua. Visit tree sitter Miranda Gibson, whose 449-day protest against clearfelling in Tasmania's Tyenna Valley led to a World Heritage listing. In this enlightening and entertaining book, Janine Burke invites you to accompany her through forests, art and writing, cities and parks, deserts and gardens, rainforests and wetlands, exploring the connections between trees and civilisations, past and present. My Forests: Travels with Trees presents the role of trees in contemporary life in a world where most people don't live in the wild, and their acquaintance with nature comes from many sources.

2 2 y separately published work icon The Most Dangerous Man in the World : The Explosive True Story of Julian Assange and the Lies, Cover-ups and Conspiracies He Exposed Andrew Fowler , New York (City) : Skyhorse Publishing , 2011 7522584 2011 single work biography

'The battle lines are drawn: freedom of speech against the control of the State. The Internet is the battle ground. In this war there will only be one winner. In The Most Dangerous Man in the World, award-winning journalist Andrew Fowler talks to Julian Assange, his inner circle, and those disaffected by him, deftly revealing the story of how a man with a turbulent childhood and brilliance for computers created a phenomenon that has disrupted the worlds of both journalism and international politics. From Assange’s early skirmishes with the “cult” of Scientology in Australia to the release of 570,000 intercepts of pager messages sent on the day of the September 11th attacks and on to the visual bombshell of the Collateral Murder video showing American soldiers firing on civilians and Reuters reporters, Fowler takes us from the founding of WikiLeaks right up to Cablegate and the threat of further leaks in 2011 that he warns could bring down a major American bank. New information based on interviews conducted with Assange reveal the possibility that he has Asperger’s syndrome; the reason U.S. soldier Bradley Manning turned to an ex-hacker to spill military secrets; and how Assange helped police remove a “how to make a bomb” book from the Internet. The mother of one of his children also talks for the first time about life with Julian when he was setting up WikiLeaks.

'According to the “Pentagon Papers” whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Julian Assange is “the most dangerous man in the world.” But just who is Julian Assange, and why is his quest for transparency and freedom of the press so dangerous in the eyes of his detractors? In a fascinating account that reads like a Tom Clancy thriller, Fowler reveals all—what it means, and why it matters. Like The Looming Tower on 9/11 or The Lords of Finance on the collapse of the US economy, The Most Dangerous Man in the World is the definitive, journalistic account of a massive global news event that’s changing the face of journalism and the way governments do business.' (Publication summary)

1 1 y separately published work icon Pride of Place : Exploring the Grimwade Collection Alisa Bunbury (editor), Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2020 22605314 2020 multi chapter work criticism art work

'A stunningly packaged hardback exploring the rich visual and textual material in the Grimwade Collection, and providing a unique perspective on Australia's history.

'The Russell and Mab Grimwade Bequest comprises a rich and sometimes unexpected variety of art, books and objects. A scientist, businessman and philanthropist, Sir Russell had wide-ranging interests embracing industry, history and botany. In all of these he was strongly supported by his wife Mab. The core of the bequest is Russell's collection of visual and textual material, which provides a perspective on the European exploration of the Pacific and the British colonisation and settlement of Australia. His keen interest resulted in an extensive body of prints, drawings, watercolours and books, as well as oil paintings, decorative arts and personal records. These are jointly housed by the University of Melbourne's Ian Potter Museum of Art, Special Collections (Library) and University Archives. Pride of Place is the first publication to explore the diversity of this remarkable collection. In this beautifully illustrated book, numerous experts share their interpretations of its highlights, responding to past historical attitudes and offering twenty-first century insights.' (Publication summary)

1 1 y separately published work icon Living After Death Yu Ouyang , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 2020 19594135 2020 selected work poetry
1 y separately published work icon Terminally Poetic Yu Ouyang , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 2020 19594000 2020 selected work poetry '‘Terminally Poetic is charged with desperation. It’s written from an opium den of wasted Australian stereotypes in the Grub Street of the mind. Ouyang Yu puts the alien back in Australian. No one is spared in this exposé of Australian letters, certainly neither the poet nor his reader. A book to climb up in love with.’ - Steve Brock
'‘Terminally Poetic is Ouyang Yu working through the colonial alphabet and undoing it and himself at various turns and forks in the road. This is the individuated poet - one of the most committed poets who undoes poetry as an act of principle, who asks questions of 'who's to blame' in startling and nuanced ways - counting down (or up) through the letters so we can make new words from the poems. He confronts reductionism by disowning it while experiencing it, he confronts expectations of style and mode of writing it by writing it and then laughing at himself and the expectations of his readers. Excoriating and yet strangely vulnerable, the poet takes on the poet and poetry's failure to be noticed, to matter, to be what it wants to be.’ - John Kinsella' (Publication summary)
1 6 y separately published work icon The Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry Cassandra Atherton (editor), Paul Hetherington (editor), Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 2020 19564336 2020 anthology poetry prose

'Prose poetry is a resurgent literary form in the English-speaking world and has been rapidly gaining popularity in Australia. Cassandra Atherton and Paul Hetherington have gathered a broad and representative selection of the best Australian prose poems written over the last fifty years.

'The Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry includes numerous distinguished prose poets-Jordie Albiston, joanne burns, Gary Catalano, Anna Couani, Alex Skovron, Samuel Wagan Watson, Ania Walwicz and many more and documents prose poetry's growing appeal over recent decades, from the poetic margins to the mainstream.

'This collection reframes our understanding not only of this dynamic poetic form, but of Australian poetry as a whole.' (Publication summary)

1 2 y separately published work icon Under the Rainbow : The Life and Times of E.W. Cole Richard Broinowski , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 2020 19564270 2020 single work biography

'Under the Rainbow is the life story of E.W. Cole, a colourful and much loved figure of 19th century Melbourne. Best remembered for his Funny Picture Books, his sense of the absurd and his marketing genius, his wonderful arcade was the first 'department store' in Melbourne, replete with a live orchestra, an aviary and monkeys alongside books, ornaments, art, curios and tearooms.

'But there was more to Cole than his merchandising prowess- he scandalised the clergy with his sacrilegious views about Christianity, campaigned passionately against the White Australia policy, and advocated education for all.

'Cole's journey from an impoverished sandwich seller on the streets of London to owner of one of the most memorable establishments of early Melbourne is remarkable. His passion for learning, insatiable curiosity, and enduring faith in the essential goodness of humanity make him a figure worth celebrating.

'More than 100 years after his death, Cole's story is a timely reminder that a little bit of goodness can go a long way.' (Publication summary)

1 4 y separately published work icon Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin : Their Early Political Careers and the Making of the Modern Labor Party Liam Byrne , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 2020 19498406 2020 single work biography

'Before becoming the prime ministers who led Australia in moments of extraordinary crisis and transformation, John Curtin and James Scullin were two young working-class men who dreamt of changing their country for the better. Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin tells the tale of their intertwined early lives as both men became labour intellectuals and powerbrokers at the beginning of the twentieth century. It reveals the underappreciated role each man played in the events that defined the modern Australian Labor Party- its first experience of national government, the turmoil of war, the great conscription clash and party split of 1916, and the heated debates over the party's socialist objective.

'Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin shows how they became the leaders that history knows best by painting a portrait of two young men struggling to establish their identities and find their place in the world. It tells of their great friendships, loves and passions, and reminds us that these were real men, with real weaknesses, desires and dreams. It explains how their early political careers set the scene for their later prime ministerships as they honed the techniques of power that led them to the summit of Australian politics.

'This is the story of two young men striving to better the world they had inherited, a story of optimism and hope with enduring relevance for today's troubled politics.' (Publication summary)

1 5 y separately published work icon Turbulence Thuy On , Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2020 18827375 2020 selected work poetry

'In this intensely personal collection, On explores loss, separation and renewal, online dating, sex, longing, rejection and desire. Though they are personal and confessional, taken from the authors own life, these poems speak to anyone who’s ever loved and lost. 

'Filled with short sharp burst of emotion, this stunning debut seeks to untangle the messiness of human relationships.' (Publication summary) 

1 3 y separately published work icon Infernal Topographies Graeme Miles , Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2020 18827335 2020 selected work poetry 'The infernal topographies of the title are more psychological than geographical, though physical travel and the infusing of the past into the present are also at issue. Driven in part by the anxieties of time and mortality that have always been at the root of lyric, these poems are also shaped by the pressure of the likely collapse of the current social order, and by impending and current extinctions. Weaving the domestic, the oneiric and the outside worlds, these are poems that try to find a place from which to speak and think when so much seems to be ending.' (Publication summary)
1 1 y separately published work icon Mysteries of Cinema : Reflections on Film Theory, History and Culture Adrian Martin , Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2020 18827176 2020 multi chapter work criticism

'The major essays of the distinguished and prolific Australian-born film critic Adrian Martin have long been difficult to access, so this anthology, which collects highlights of his work in one volume, will be welcomed throughout film studies. Martin offers in-depth analysis of many genres of films while providing a broad understanding of the history of cinema and the history of film criticism and culture. These vibrant, highly personal essays, written between 1982 and 2016, balance breadth across cinema theory with almost encyclopedic detail, ranging between aesthetics, cinephilia, film genre, criticism, philosophy, and cultural politics.

'Mysteries of Cinema circumscribes a special cultural period that began with the dream of critique as a form of poetic writing, and today arrives at collaborative experiments in audiovisual essays. Throughout these essays, Martin pursues a particular vision of what cinema has been, what it is, and what it still could be.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Novel Politics : Studies in Australian Political Fiction John Uhr , Shaun Crowe , Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2020 18807115 2020 multi chapter work criticism

'Percy Bysshe Shelley once described poets as the 'unacknowledged legislators of the world'. If this is true, Australian political scientists have shown curiously little interest in the role that literary figures play in the nation's political life.

'Novel Politics takes the relationship between literature and politics seriously, analysing the work of six writers, each the author of a classic text about Australian society. These authors bridge the history of local writing, from pre-Federation colonial Australia (Catherine Spence, Rosa Praed and Catherine Martin) to the contemporary moment (Tim Winton, Christos Tsiolkas and Kim Scott). Novel Politics unpicks the many political threads woven into these books, as they document the social world as it exists, while suggesting new possibilities for the nation's future. As political commentators of a particular kind, all six authors offer unique insights into the deeper roots of politics in Australia, beyond the theatre of parliament and out into the wider social world, as imagined by its dreamers and criticised by its most incisive discontents.'(Publication summary) 

1 y separately published work icon Unfinished Business : Life as a Senator Derryn Hinch , Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2020 18608346 2020 single work autobiography

'Derryn Hinch made headlines in 2016 when he went from media personality to Victorian Senator at the head of a new political party and made a lasting impact on the political landscape.
'This is an unflinchingly honest account of his last two years as a senator, before he lost his seat in the 2019 election.
'Hinch's diary exposes Canberra's inner workings and details on his professional successes and failures with trademark frankness.' (Publication summary)

1 2 y separately published work icon Torch the Place Benjamin Law , 2020 Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2020 17252190 2020 single work drama

'Teresa’s mum finds it impossible to let anything go – from grudges to household objects. She thinks of her home as a museum full of irreplaceable treasures. But she’s not really a curator – she’s a hoarder – and her house is enough to give Marie Kondo heart palpitations. When her kids return home to celebrate her 60th birthday, she’s over the moon to have the family back together. But this isn’t a reunion. It’s an intervention.'

Source: Melbourne Theatre Company.

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