Australians have up to now gained only a limited understanding of inflation. The exceptions are those of an older generation who went bankrupt or lost their jobs in the wake of the 'Whitlam party', when a Commonwealth spendathon coincided with a wave of global oil-price increases. What is it they say about history repeating?

Anthony Beevor set aside his first attempt to chronicle Russia's revolution, the subject matter proving so utterly confusing that crafting a coherent narrative eluded him. Readers will appreciate his return to the quest, perhaps inspired by Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, and Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917–1921 is the result -- a timely reminder that it pays to study history so as not to repeat it

As inflation soared production plummeted, unemployment shot up, the poor grew poorer and price controls aggravated those inflationary distortions. Conspiracy theories and resentments multiplied. In our time, when societal fragmentation is on the rise, the consequences of a splintering of public opinion in the Weimar period are worth our attention. Fractious societies fail

Our post-Bürgenstock expectations have been sorely disappointed. Were they right, those who argued that trusting central bankers and allowing currencies to float freely was an unwarranted risk? That only a return to gold could ban inflation for good? Implementing remedies -- stable money, smaller government, freer markets -- will be a huge task

Amei Li was born in 1950 and belongs to the youngest vintage of victims that can directly recall the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. Her memoir, 'Pink Flower: Growing Up in Mao’s China' is honest and authentic history at its most compelling, and timely too in light of the torments currently being inflicted on the locked-down residents of Shanghai

When Ai Ding, the hero of Liao Yiwu’s remarkable new novel, reads that the source of the new virus has been traced to a seafood market he recognises a coverup of monumental proportions. Yes, it's fiction but its greater truth is indisputable: 'For the peaceful well-being of mankind, the China empire must break apart'

What is being discovered on Göbekli hill contributes to a fundamental rethinking of the Neolithic era and the emergence of the first civilisations. Was the catalyst collective safety, food production, religion or perhaps even the lure of grains to make beer? Whatever the answer, as the American archaeologist Ian Hodder concludes, the site 'changes everything'

The stock of useful knowledge grows by people researching, experimenting, learning, practising and trading. If risk-taking individuals can compete using their novel ideas they have a good chance to become a long-term force for the good. The problem is that political power and ideologically motivated coercion throughout the West now hinder discovery and exploitation

While Australia and its exporters have suffered much at the hands of a bullying and spiteful Beijing, we are far from alone in enduring the dragon's breath. That relapse into arbitrary and opportunistic power-plays makes some fundamental rethinking unavoidable