Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
After Reagan, but Mostly Before
The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority
by Patrick J. Buchanan
Crown Forum, 2014, 400 pages, US$28
Being Nixon: A Man Divided
by Evan Thomas
Random House, 2015, 640 pages, US$35
The Quiet Man: The Indispensable Presidency of George H.W. Bush
by John Sununu
Broadside Books, 2015, 432 pages, US$28.99
The paramount question of the second half of the twentieth century was what to do about communism, and the indispensable man in that confrontation was Ronald Reagan. It is tempting, therefore, to believe that the times could be summed up in a single electric moment, maybe that speech at the Brandenburg Gate when President Reagan’s four-word manifesto—“Tear down this wall!”—showed him to be something larger than an ordinary politician. Shrewder, too: it is remarkable that President Reagan, the Cold Warrior who intended to defeat the Soviet Union rather than contain it, did not contemplate at that moment American action, but…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins
