XI11 The Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands

(i) The Middle East (including N. Africa)

Irene Collins

General H.N.Howard, The Middle East: a selected bibliography of recent works, now has a supplement of works published in 1978-9, which can be purchased separately (Washington, D.C.: M.E.Inst., $1). F. Abdubrazak, Arabic historical wifing, 1975-6 (Mansell, pbk $31), is a usefully annotated list. S.N. Fisher, The Middle East: a history (3rd ed, N.Y.: Knopf, $16.95), is a full revision of the 1969 edition in the light of recent scholarship, dealing also with the events of the last decade. A. Goldschmidt Jr, A concise history of the Middle East (Boulder: Westview P., $20, pbk %lo), starts with Islamic background but devotes half its pages to events since 1914: clear and readable, it should be a useful text for students. A.H. Hourani, Europe and the Middle Easr (Macmillan, f15) , is a collection of eight essays, three dealing with the historical development of Christian-Muslim relations and the remainder examining the views of Western writers, from Volney to Toynbee, who have tried to interpret the East to the West. E.W. Said, Orientalism (Routledge, f8.95), is an important and scholarly book which argues that western ideas about the Middle East have long been based on self-perpetuating assumptions which must be tackled head+n if historians are to arrive at the truth.

Great Powers and the Middle East The good old-fashioned Eastern Question is by no means dead: witness R. Millman, Britain and the Eastern Question, 1875-78 (Oxford: Clarendon, E20), which up-dates Seton-Watson’s book of 1935 with some interesting new interpretations; and the somewhat livelier work by E. Ingram, The beginning of the Great Game in Asia 1818-34 (O.U.P., f l I) , which deals in fascinating detail with Britain’s reactions to the threatened advance of Russia towards the Ottoman Empire, Persia and India. F. Ismail has written a fairly lengthy article on ‘The making of the treaty of Bucharest, 1811-12’ (M.E.Studs., xv), regarding the treaty as forming a basis for future Russo-Ottoman relations. R. Khalidi draws on British, French, Arabic and Turkish sources to throw new light on British policy towards Syria and Palestine, 1906-14 (Ithaca P. for St Antony’s, Oxon., 511.50). A.H. Arslanian, ‘British wartime pledges, 19 17-1 8: the Armenian case’ (J. Contemp.Hist., 1978), asserts that the British for sheer expediency made false pledges to the Armenians, and that even in 1918 Britain had no comprehensive Middle East policy. A.L. Macfie, ‘The Straits question: the conference of Lausanne, 1922-3’ (MXStuds. , xv), thinks the Allies had reason to be pleased with the settlement and praises Curzon for the success achieved. F.G. Webber, The evasive neutral: Germany, Britain, and the quest for a Turkish alliance in the second World War (Missouri U.P., $19.50), in a provocative but not altogether convincing manner argues that the Turks sought to obtain the Dodecanese islands and that the British were afraid to accede to such demands lest they whet Turkey’s appetite for Cyprus; in consequence Turkey might have turned to the Axis but for Germany’s maladroit attempts to ally with the Arabs. Y. Sichor surveys The Middle East in China’s

foreign policy, 1949-77 (C.U.P., f12). E. Kaufman et al, Israel-Latin American relations (N. Brunswick: Trans. Books, $19.!25), deals mainly with Latin-America’s attitude to Israel rather than vice versa, but i:j nonetheless a useful and important

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book, covering the period from the creation of the Israeli state to 1973. J.C. Hurewitz (ed), The Middle East and North iifrica in worldpolitics: a documentary record, XI, British-French supremacy 1914-46 (2nd ed, revised and enlarged, Yale U.P., $57.50), is a solid work of reference. T.A. Bryson. United States/Midde East diplomatic relations, 1784-1978: an annotated bibliography (Scarecrow P., $lo), listing 1,353 items, should be a boon to students of the subject.

Egypt has attracted a good deal of attention this year, beginning (chronologically) with a short article by A. Nibbi on ancient Egyptian sea-going (Mariner’s M., lxv). G.H. El-Nahal has written a scholarly work on 17re judicial administration of Ottoman Egypt in the 17th century (Chicago: Bibl. Islamica, $ 16). P. Gran, Islamic roots of capitalism: Egypt 1760-1840 (Texas U.P., $19.95), argues that capitalist transformation was begun not by Europeans but by Muslim merchants and Mamluk rulers: an important book which has valuable chapters on the cultural and intellectual background to economic development. T. Walz has made the first archival study of the historic trade route between Egypt and the Sudan, Trade between Egypt and Bitad as-Sudan, I7W1820 (Cairo: Inst. fr. d’Archbl. orientale, 1978): the book contains much valuable information on slaves, collection of taxes, ownership of property, and different ‘nationalities’ involved in trade. D. Lorimer and D. Bull lead us on a ‘photographic excursion’ Up the Nile, 1839-78 (N.Y.: Potter, $25) . M. Deeb, Partypolitics in Egypt: the Wafd and its rivals, 1919-39 (Ithaca P. for St Antony’s, Oxon., E9.50), is a detailed work based on vast research; the same author has an article on ‘Labour and politics in Egypt, 1919-39’ (1nt.J. of M.E. Studs., x), in which he analyses the rise of what he calls a new labour movement in Egypt in the crucial inter-war period and the extent to which various political movements were able to hamper it. R. Fullick and G. Powell, Suez: the double war (Hamilton, f7.95), believe that generals and politicians were fighting for different objectives in 1956; chiefly of interest to military historians, the book nevertheless raises some general issues. G. Warner, ‘Collusion and the Suez Crisis of 1956’ (Int. Mairs, Iv), concludes that British claims to have had no foreknowledge of the Israeli attack and no prior agreement about it were untrue. J. Georges-Picot, The real Suez crisis: the end of a great 19th-centuly work (N.Y.: Jovanovich, 1978, $10.95), is translated from the French edition of 1975; an account by the then Director-General of the Suez Canal Co. of the implications of Nasser’s nationalization of the canal, it is an important source for the historian. R.W. Baker, Egypt’s uncertain revolution under Nasser and Sadat (Harvard U.P., f l 1.20), is a convincing assessment of conditions in Egypt since 1952.

Palestine, Arab-Israeli Question A. Cohen and B. Lewis, Population and revenue in the towns of Palestine in the 16th century (Princeton U.P., 1978, $17.50), is a scholarly work which shows the usefulness and limitations of tax rolls as a source for the study of six major towns. Philip Jones, Britain and Palestine, 1914-48: archival sources for the history of the British Mandates (O.U.P., for Br.Acad., f15), lists papers in private hands as well as government papers, mainly in Britain but with a brief note on archives outside the U.K. B. Wasserstein, The British in Palestine: the Mandatory government and the Arab-Jewish coqflict, 191 7-29 (RHist.Soc., E8.25), is an excellent study of the early years of British rule in Palestine, concluding that the Mandate was doomed from the start; and D. Horowitz and M. Lissack, Origins of Israeli polity: Palestine under the Mandate (Chicago U.P., f i 3.30), is an interesting book by two social scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who explain the increasing divergence of Arab and Jew during the period of British rule by a

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mixture of historical and sociological approaches. E. Kaufman, ‘The French pro- Zionist declarations of 1917-18’ (M.E.Studs., xv), gives a further dimension to studies of the Balfour declaration. N. Bethell, The Palestine triangle: the struggle between British, Jews and Arabs, 1935-48 (Deutsch, f7.95), has little on the Arab point of view but is a careful account of the struggle between Zionists and the British. On the other hand E.W. Said, The Question of Palestine (Routledge, f1.50), takes the Arab point of view throughout, and accuses both West and Zionists, nurtured on Eastern stereotypes, of callous indifference to Arab claims. S. Schama, Two Rothschilds and the land of Israel (N.Y.: Knopf, 1978, $15.95), is firmly based on archival material and gives solid support to the newer view of the Rothschilds as committed politicians rather than mere philanthropists. E.M. Wilson, Decision on Palestine: how the US. came to recognise Israel (Stanford: Hoover Inst.P., $14.95), is a detached, scholarly work by a former ofEcial of the Near East division of the State Department in Washington.

Other countries D.J Cioeta, ‘Ottoman censorship in Lebanon and Syria, 1876-1906’ (Int.J. of M.E.Studs., x), concludes that this particular censorship was by no means as hard as some in parts of Europe at the time and does not deserve the severe criticism heaped upon it. H. Gaube, Iranian cities (N.Y.U.P., $22.50), is a valuable work which studies the growth of three cities in detail, regarding them as representative of types. H. Batutu, The old social classes and the revolutionary movements of Iraq: a study of Iraq’s old landed and commercial classes and of its Communists, Ba’thists, and Free Oficers (Princeton U.P., $75), argues that the social classes which gained pre-eminence under the British mandate incorporated Iraq into the world market, and thereby released socio-economic forces which have caused problems ever since. N. van Dam, The struggle for power in Syria: sectarianism, regionalism and tribalism in politics, 1961-78 (Croom Helm, f7.95), describes the intricacies of Syrian political life and especially the religious background to them in great detail, using party documents, memoirs;, newspaper articles and reports of interviews. Christopher J. Walker, Armenia: the survival of a nation (Croom Helm, 214.95), tells the story of Armenia’s struggle for nationhood from the mid-19th century to the present in detail, and with much annotatiun, relentlessly condemning the Turks and the Western powers. R. Driss, ‘La Tunisie au debut de la seconde guerre mondiale’ (Cah.de Tun., xxvii), consists of brief reminiscences by a leading journalist of the time, accompanied by some forty pages of photographed documents.

(ii) The Far East

N.J. Brailey

No area of the world can have grown more in importance over the last decade than Asia. It could hardly be expected, however, that all its constituent parts would have kept pace with each other, and thus command, or even justify, comparable attention.

India, that still occupied the limelight, and for very similar reasons. Both considered themselves prime sufferers at the hands of nineteenth-century European imperialism, and both, in the immediate post-Second World War period, had been once again resurgent, propagating new philosophies or ideologies. Maoist China, emerging from the Cultural Revolution, was typically the more introspective. India, under Pandit Nehru’s daughter in her younger days, was the more outward-looking, and also milder in its neutralism and support for the principles of peaceful coexistence.

Ten years ago, it was the two great ancient empires and cultural centres, China and

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But the interval has brought much disillusionment. Commentators still attempt to make the most of Teng Hsiao-ping’s more modest aspirations in China, but it cannot be claimed that the extent to which he has turned to Western models has made his country anything but less interesting, however effective they may prove. And as for India, and the course of events that have brought Mrs Gandhi back to power there, few can find anything good to say about it at all.

reputations. Historians in particular, take time to adjust, tending in their interpretative role to follow the fashion of an age rather than lead it. Nonetheless, for instance in the burgeoning of a new revival of interest in Japan, they are starting to respond to current trends. As had been the case almost since the war, so still in 1970, Japan used to be taken largely for granted, as simply the classic nowWestern copycat economic miracle. But those were the days when economic progress was also taken for granted in the West itself. And if giving more attention to Japan’s past may not provide us with any path out of the present mire, it may remove some ingrained misconceptions that hamper constructive co-operation, or at least help us to avoid creating further problems for ourselves in the world.

development, Saburo Ienaga, The Pacific War: World War II and the Japanese, 1931-45 (Pantheon, 1978/Blackwells, 1979, f8), is a disappointment in this respect. Not a recent study at all, but just a translation of an original 1968 version, it serves merely to perpetuate the stereotypes of a time when the Japanese had not yet begun to see themselves entitled to recognition as leaders of the capitalist world. For a while after the war, crushed by the atomic bombs, they did accept the verdict of 1945, and Ienaga personally is worthy of respect for his neutralist convictions, and as a doughty opponent of the restoration of pre-war government controls, especially the certification of textbooks. But his analysis is surely now out-dated, in its acceptance of the 1945 victors’ apportionment of the whole burden of blame for the Pacific War to Japan, as hitherto a fascist, and inherently aggressive, expansionist, Emperor- lauding, samurai-inspired society, and in its expression of contrite gratitude to the American occupiers for having put her back on the right road post-war.

What is certain is that the ten years through from the- 1931 Mukden Incident, which launched Japan’s intervention in China, provide quite inadequate perspective with which to view that ‘day that will live in infamy’, Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. R. Stony’s brief Japan and the decline of the West in Asia, 1894-1943 (Macmillan, pbk f3.95), takes the story a good deal further back. He emphasises the extent to which Japan was deliberately left to go it alone at the Washington Naval Conference of 1922, when the United States effectively blackmailed Britain into abandoning its twenty-year-old alliance with Tokyo. More, Stony indicates the continuing importance of American policy in the East, at least so far as Northeast Asia was concerned, way back to the Russo-Japanese War, when Washington was supposed still to be isolationist, and was undoubtedly all too ignorant of local conditions. It emerges that the ostensibly vague and disinterested American ‘Open Door’ policy in China was always balanced by a highly security-conscious hostility to one-power hegemony in the area, as a threat to the status of the Pacific Ocean as an American lake. What with persistent anti-Japanese immigrant racialist feeling along the United States west coast, it was natural enough for Theodore Roosevelt to identify Japan as early as 1905 as the real menace to American Pacific pre- eminence, and initiate a negative containment policy that subsequently led Washington always to take China’s side against Japan.

Perhaps indeed, already by 1970, both China and India were living on past

Admittedly, the latest native Japanese publication on the country’s modem

Even Stony hesitates, however, to follow the admittedly always controversial,

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twenty-year-old Conroy thesis, that nineteenthcentury Meiji Japan was really quite idealistically inspired even in its early interventions in Korea. He persists, therefore, with the conventionally cynical assessment of the Japanese ‘Greater East Asia Co- Prosperity Sphere’ concept of the 1930s. But surely the era of the Western impact in Eastern Asia must be viewed as a whole. Most extraordinary of all, is the romantic light in which most Americans still regard the events which initiated it in the case of Japan, the gunboat diplomacy of Commodore Perry in 1853, and the ‘unequal treaty’ extorted by Consul Harris in 1858. Perhaps this is because, preoccupied by the Civil War, Washington was unable thereafter to follow them up in standard imperialist fashion. But these were the events that disturbed more than two centuries of the samurai-dominated Japanese isolationism and ‘minding their own business’ policies. The very Meiji ‘Restoration’ misnomer, which conceals what was nothing less than a full-blooded revolution in the Japanese polity and society, implies the reluctance with which this experiment in ‘modernization‘ was originally adopted, simply to preserve the country’s sovereignty. And decades later, when Japan had lost all hope of returning to the old self-sufficiency, with a massive increase in its population, and heavy dependance on foreign trade, not even its establishment of a two-party democratic system dissuaded Washington, with the onset of the Depression, from taking the lead in closing its doors to Japanese manufactures, and sparking off the virtual collapse of the Japanese economy. China, the main sufferer from the consequent Japanese attempt to carve out a self-contained economic and political association of Asian states, secure from Western capitalist vicissitudes, may be in a much better position today to defend its own interests, but warning should be taken from the early 1930s of the effects of economic protectionism instituted oblivious to the concerns of others.

echo in what is perhaps the most interesting book of the year on Japan, A.M. Craig (ed), Japan: A Comparative View (Princeton, 212). The editor himself supplies an introduction dealing with stages of change in modern Japan in relation to the old modernization/Westernization debate, comparing it with earlier Sinification. And M.B. Jansen follows this up with a very thought-provoking comparison of Japanese ‘borrowing’ from China and the debt owed to Byzantium by another ill-understood ‘oriental’ society, Russia. Other eye-catching contributions include K. Yamamura, ‘Pre-Industrial landholding patterns in Japan and England’, exploring further an area at the root of England’s original commercial and industrial leadership in the modem world where she might well have been emulated by Japan, and T. Noguchi, ‘Love and death in the modem novel: America and Japan’, a valuable cultural angle.

recognition of the cultural obstacles, especially in the ancient Asia! polities, to the supposedly universal Rostowian concept of stages of growth. Even with the termination of colonialism, the former Western imperial powers, and above all the United States, featuring itself as the champion of self-determination, have wished to persuade themselves that their example of development was an inevitable path. And scholars of Japan’s history, best-placed to deny this assumption, have been handicapped by its apparently atypical character, as almost the only Asian country to escape Western imperial control, and because it did choose to follow the Western economic path. Even in the Craig volume, contributors restrict most of their comparisons to neighbouring countries in East Asia, China and Korea, which soon lost full control of their own affairs by the end of the nineteenth century.

It is here where the experience of Thailand, for long probably the least studied country in Asia, might have been most valuable. Even Thailand, of course, has often

This view of the alien, deracinating effect of the ‘modernization’ process finds some

Maybe the distorting lens of colonialism has been largely responsible for the slow

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been inaccurately dismissed as a ‘colony in all but name’, but a new wave of interest and activity on the part of both Thai and foreign scholars is currently giving the lie to that assumption. A major contribution to the appreciation of the distinctive Thai response to the Western impact is W.F. Vella, Chaiyo! King Vajiravudh and the development of Thai nationalism (Univ. of Hawaii, 1978, $20). Educated at Sandhurst and Oxford, Vajiravudh (1910-25) was the classic westernized oriental gentleman, who sensed that without changing the minds of his subjects, none of the institutional reforms promoted during the reign of his much better-known and approved father, Chulalongkorn (1868-1910), would have much effect in modernizing the country. He perceived his role principally in propagandizing a new nationalism, Vella’s central theme, but one or two of his father’s old ministers suffered in the process, turned to poisoning the minds of Westem observers against him and caused him to go down in Western historiography as a profligate lazybones mainly responsible for the dissatisfaction that gave rise to the Revolution of 1932. In Thailand, however, his work has always been seen as an essential complement to that of his father, and it is only now that Westerners have been given the opportunity to appreciate the size of the difficulties he faced.

Another publication from Hawaii, of equal interest but very different character, is Y. Ishii (ed), Thailand: A Rice-Growing Society (1978, $20). What this collection represents is a view of Thai political, social and economic development through the centuries from the angle of its very raison d‘ktre, its remarkable fecund rice- productivity. No foreign scholars could be better equipped to attempt such an approach than the Japanese, with their own rice-growing agricultural tradition and modernization in that field as much as the industrial. And this volume offers the prospect of a distinctive and perhaps leading Japanese form of Thai historiography. Particularly useful, indeed perhaps the best brief outline of modem ideological development in Thailand, is T. Yano, ‘Political Structure of a Rice-Growing State’.

A native Thai scholar owing something of a debt of Yano, but also to the Cornell tradition of Thai studies in America, is T. Chaloemtiarana, Thailand: The politics of despotic paternalism; and (ed), Thaipolitics I, 1932-57 (Social Science Assoc. of Thailand, 1979 and 1978, Tcs 150 and 200). The former is the first in depth study of the life and times of Thailand’s outstanding modem military despot, Marshal Sarit Thanarat, premier from 1958 to his death in 1963. And the latter is a collection of the extracts and documents on which the Sarit study was based, edited in conjunction with a couple of collaborators, and at nearly 900 pages long, a quite indispensable work which no student of the period will henceforth be able to neglect.

Not satisfied with these, the Thai Social Science Press has now made available in a translation by J. Keyes, the classic memoir of Thailand‘s wartime Foreign Minister and ambassador to Japan, Direk Jayanama, Siam and World War II (1978, Tcs 250). And with the appearance also of T. Numnonda, Thailand and the Japanese

presence, 1941-5 (Inst of Southeast Asian Studs., Discussion Paper 6, 1977, Sing$ 13), and J. B. Haseman, The Thai resistance movement in World War 11 (Center of Southeast Asian Studs., Univ. of N. Illinois, Special Report 17, 1978, $9), we are promised better clarification of the mysterious circumstances which supposedly saw radical leader and inspiration of the 1932 Revolution, Pridi Phanomyong, leading an underground Free French-style resistance to the Japanese, with whom premier Marshal Phibunsongkhram had been in alliance since the outset of the Pacific War. And such works point up, in particular, one of the main weaknesses of E. Colbert, Southeast Asia in international politics, 1941-56 (Cornell U.P., 1977, f9.50), which quite glosses over the circumstances which persuaded the United States to decline to recognize the Thai declaration of war in 1942, from a government which it had

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regarded for at least a year as a surrogate of Japan. Similarly, Thailand’s central role in the formation of the SEAT0 organization in 1954 is largely ignored, but this is otherwise a useful preliminary survey of a most important period, not least with regard to the involvement of the United States in its disastrous Vietnam War.

Mention should also be made of D.L. Elliot, Thailand: origins of militaly rule (Zed Press, 1978, f6.50), a Marxist study valuable principally for its admission of the non-applicability of convention Marxist categories to Thailand; G.V. Smith, The Dutch in seventeenth-century Thailand, another N. Illinois Special Report (no 16, 1977), a useful analysis of Dutch attitudes of the time to commerce in Southeast Asia, which nonetheless fails to appreciate the sense of threat felt by the Thai following the Dutch 1663 blockade of the Chaophraya river, which soon pushed them into the hands of the French, and nearly ended in the establishment of the first European empire on the mainland of Asia; arid F. Trager and W.J. Koenig, Burmese Sittans 1769-1826 (Arizona U.P., pbk 653.30), a pioneering presentation of traditional-style Burmese records on the eve of the British imperial conquest.

China and India Returning finally to the two countries whose past if not present importance remains unchallenged, J. Ch’en, China and the West (Hutchinson, pbk f5), promised to be yet another blow-by-blow account of modem Chinese history with which publishers’ lists have been overwhelmed in recent years. In fact, it is much more ambitious than this, but nonetheless finally resolves itself into a very idiosyncratic work, exploring the blind alley of the Christian missionizing impact on China of which the author himself was a product, explaining how he became alienated from his own land. Terminating in 1939, it quite neglects the Western contribution to the modem Communist China, deriving in siwificant part from the extraordinary radical atmosphere of Paris after the First World War which, in addition to Chou En-lai and Teng Hsiao-ping, also spawned HQ Chi Minh and the abovementioned radical Thai leader, Pridi Phanomyong. On the evidence of 1979 publications, the decline of interest has been most marked in the case of India, but attention should be drawn to the deceptive topicality of M. Ingram, The Beginning of the Great Game in Asia (O.U.P.). With reference to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, it should be noted that unlike the old British Indian empire, Russia’s chief rival in the carve-up of Asia, the modem independent India, is friendly to Russia, and the natural ruling elite of Pakistan, led by the Bhutto family, is similarly inclined. Doubtless, Afghanistan is still a buffer-state, but now between two ideologies, Soviet communism and a resurgent and very threatening Islam.

(iii) Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific [slands

W. David McIntyre

General A few titles relate to Australasia or the region generally. J.A. Moses (ed), Historical disciplines and culture in Australasia: an assessment (Queensland U.P., Aus$ 19.50), discusses historiography, and D. Denoon, ‘Understanding Settler Societies’ (Hist.Studs., xviii), compares Australia with Argentina and New Zealand with Uruguay. A.C. and N.C. Begg, The world of John Boultbee: including an account of sealing in Australia and New Zeuland (Christchurch: Whitcoulls, NZ$ 19.95), covers sealing in Van Dieman’s land and the Foveaux Trait in the 1820s and 1830s. E.D. and A. h t t S (eds), Experiences of a forty-niner in Australia and New Zealand (Melbourne: Gaston Renard, Aus$ ,45), is the memoirs of C.D. Ferguson.

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W.J. Gardner, Colonial cap and gown: studies in the mid-Victorian universities of Australasia (Christchurch: Canterbury U.P., NZ% 6.95), examines the founding of the universities of Sydney (1850), Melbourne (1853), Otago (1869), Canterbury (1873) and Adelaide (1874) and includes pioneering material on early women graduates. L.L. Barton, Australians in the Waikato War, 1863-64 (Sydney: Library of Australian history, Aus$ 12.95), covers Australia’s ‘fmt-war’-in New Zealand. W.D. McIntyre, The rise and fall of the Singapore Naval Base, 1919-1942 (Macmillan/Archon, dtl5), analyses Australia’s and New Zealand‘s participation in Commonwealth strategy. Other comparative themes: A. Markus, Fear and hatred purifving Australia and California, 1850-1901 (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, Aus$ 16.20), on racial exclusion laws; R. Hayburn (ed), Australian and New Zealand relations (Dunedin: Otago U., NZ$ 4.95), the papers of a foreign policy school; and S. White, ‘Howard White and the development of probation in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom’, (HistStuds., xviii). Two works on colonial resistance movements touch on both the Pacific Islands and New Zealand: M . Adas Prophets of rebellion: millenarian protest movements against the European colonial order ( N . Carolina U.P., $19.00), and A.F. Mamak, Race, class and rebellion in the South Pacific (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, Aus% 12.15).

Australia (Prices in Aus $ unless otherwise stated). TWO well-known short histories have been revised and reissued R.M. Crawford, Ausrralia (Melbourne: Hutchinson), and R.B. Ward, Australia, a short history (Dee Why West, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, $4.95). There are four useful reference works: A.C. Castles (ed), Australia: a chronology and fact book, 1606-1976 (Dobbs Ferry N.J.: Oceana World Chronology Series, US$ 7.50); A.W. Reed, Place names of Australia (Terry Hills, N.S.W.: Reed, $5.56), and J.F. Larkins, 101 Events that shaped Australia (Adelaide: Rigby, $12.95); and J.R. Grigsby and T.F. Guny, Australia’s frontier: an atlas of Australian history (Sydney: Harcourt Bruce).

For Aboriginal history there are two surveys, from differing viewpoints: a school textbook by C. Bourke et al, Before the Invasion, Aboriginal life to 1788 (Melbourne: O.U.P., $4.95), and H. Reynolds, Aborigines and settlers: the Australian experience, 1788-1939 (Stanmore, N.S.W.: Cassell, $5.95). A regional study of the Lower Murray tribes is by G.K. Jenkin, Conquest of the NgarrinGeri (Adelaide: Rigby, $9.95). Exploration and early settlement, for a while somewhat out of fashion, has some important new titles. G. Martin, The founding of Australia: the argument about Australian origins (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, $16.16); R.F.S. Erickson, Ernest Giles: Explorer and traveller, 1835-97 (Melbourne: Heinemann, 1978, $18.50), and W. and C. Steele, To thegreatgup the surveys and exploration of L.A. Wells, last Australian explorer, 1860-1938 (Blackwood, S.A.: Lynton, 1978, $10.00). There are also some titles on early settlement. E.G. Hazel, Some came free, 1830-1892: a story of colonial life at the limits of location (Aranda A.C.T.: Roebuck SOC., 1978); R.T. Appelyard and T. Manford, The beginnings: European discovety and early settlement of Swan River, Western Australia (W.Aust.U.P., $10); and D. Denholm, The colonial Australians (Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin, $7.95).

Biography and memoirs still provide the largest output and there has been a spate of biographical dictionaries, including three more volumes of the excellent A.D.B.: A.G.L. Shaw and C.H.M. Clark, Australian dictionaty of biography, vol 11, 1758- 1850 I-2; B. Naim, G. Serle and R. Ward, vol IV, 1841-90, D-J; and B. Nairn and G. Serle, vol VII, 1891-1939, A-H (Melbourne U.P., $25 each). A sociological analysis of the early volumes is provided by J.G. Marshall, Occupational index to the Australian Dictionary of Biography 1788-1890, vols I-VI, (Bundoora, Vic.: La

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Trobe U. Dept. of Sociology). Western Australia has its own project under way: Dictionary of Western Australians, 1829-1914: P. Statham, vol I, Early Settlers 1829-50; R. Erickson, vol 11, Bond 1850-68; and R. Erickson, vol 111, Free 1850-63 (Nedlands, W.A.: W. Aust. U.P., $15.00, $15.95 and $19.95). These are supplemented by L. Hunt (ed), Westralian Portraits (Nedlands, W.A.: W.Aust. U.P., $10). There are also compilations on parliamentarians for two states: H. Riad et al, Biographical register of the New South Wales parliament, 1901-1970 (Canberra: A.N.U.P., $12.50), and S. Bennett et al, Biographical register of the Tasmanian parliament, 1851-1960 (Canberra: A.N.U.P.). Individual biographies remain mainly political: S.W. Jackman, A slave to duty: a portrait sketch of Sir George Arthur, Bart, PC, KCH (Melbourne: Hawthorn Press, $16.50), on the Governor of Van Dieman’s Land 1824-36; C. Pearl, The three lives of Gavan Durn (N.S.W.U.P., .% 16.95); L.F. Crisp George Houston Reid: federalist father and federal failure? (Canberra: L.F. Crisp); J.A. La Nauze, Alfred Deakin: a biography (Sydney: A n g u s and Robertson, $14.95), which is a one volume reprint in the ‘Famous Australian Lives Series’; L.F. Fitzhardinge, The Little Digger 1914-1952 (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, $40), vol I1 of his life of W.M. Hughes; D.R. Home, In search of Billy Hughes (Melbourne: Macmillan, $15), taking a more popular approach; and D. Watson, Brian Fitzpatrick, a radical life (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, $15.50), about the life and work of a celebrated historian and civil libertarian. Finally, two A.L.P. memoirs: A.A. Calwell, Be just and fear not (Adelaide: Rigby, $3.50), by the federal opposition leader 1960-67, and E.G. Whitlam, The truth of the matter (Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin), giving his version of 1975.

Social life seems to be less well treated this year. There is an interesting collection of sources on urban life, J.F. Grant and G. Serle (eds), The Melbourne scene, 1803- 1956 (Neutral Bay, N.S.W.: Hale and Iremonger, $14.40). Ned Kelly is looked at by a geographer: F.J. McQuitton, The Kelly outbreak, 1878-1880: the geographical dimension of social banditry (Melbourne U.P., $17.60). M. Kiddle’s classic on Victoria has been re-issued: Men of yesterday: a social history of the western district of Victoria, 1834-1890 (Melbourne U.P., $ 1 7.60). On urban life there is A.M. Jordens, The Stenhouse circle: literary life in mid-nineteenth century Sydney (Melbourne U.P., $18), and C.T. Stannage, The people of Perth: a social history of Western Australia’s capital city (Perth: Canolls, $16.95). Two interesting interpretative essays appear in Hist.Studs., xviii: P. Grimshaw, ‘Women and the family in Australian history: a reply to The Real Matilda’, which traces subordination of women to the modem ideology of family life, not harsh pioneer experience, and R. White, ‘The Australian way of life’, which emphasises the role of optimism in the late 1940s and early 50s.

A few titles only on politics: D. Jaensch and M. Teichmann, Dictionaty of Australian politics (South Melbourne: Macmillan, $6.95); K.H. Kennedy, ‘Bribery and political crisis, Queensland 1922’ (Aust. J. of Pol. and Hist., xxv), about an attempt to defeat the Theodore Ministry; and P. Cook, ‘Frank Anstey: memoirs of the Scullin Labour Government, 1929-32’ (lfist.Studs., xviii). Militaria always has its following, especially on World War 11: R.N.L. Hopkins, Australian armour: a history of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps, 1927-1972 (Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1978, $13.95); A. Payne, HMAS Perth: the stor?, of the 6 inch cruiser, 1936-42 (Garden Island, N.S.W.: Naval Hist.Soc. of Australia, 1978, $4.95); D. Vincent, Catalina chronicle: a history of RAAF operations (Paradise, S.A.: D. Vincent, 1978, $12.95); P.C. Firkins, From hell to eternity (Perth: Westward Ho Publishing, $1 3.95), about prisoners-of-war under the Japanese; and B.

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Patkin, The Dunera internees (Stanmore, N.S.W.: Cassell, $12.95), about German Jewish refugees in Australia. Another perspective on Australia in World War I1 is provided by P.G. Edwards (ed), Australia through American eyes, 1935-1945: observations by American diplomats (Queensland U.P., $11.66).

official-documents series has been published: H. Kenway, et al, Documents of Australian foreign policy, 1937-49, vol 111, January-June 1940 (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service). There is also a new survey of foreign policy, E.M. Andrews, A history of Australian foreign Policy: from dependence to independence (Melbourne: Longmans, Cheshire). Particular aspects of external affairs are treated as follows: G. Barratt, The Russian navy and Australia to 1825: the days before suspicion (Melbourne: Hawthorne Press, $14.95); P.B. Murphy, ‘Australia and Japan in the nineteen-thirties’, (J. of R. Aust.Hist.Soc., lxv); C. O’Brien, ‘Oceans divide, oceans unite: the concept of regional security in Australian defence planning’ (AustJ of Pol. and Hist., xxv); P.G. Edwards, ‘Evatt and the Americans’ (Hist.Studs., xviii); H. Adil, Australia’s policy toward Indonesia during confiontation, 1962-66 (Singapore: Inst. of Southeast Asian Studs., 1977); G. Freudenberg, ‘The Australian Labor Party and Vietnam’ (Aust. Outlook, xxxiii); V. Windeyer, Australia and the Commonwealth (C.U.P., 1978, 75p); K.C. Beazley, ‘Federal labor and the American installations: prelude to Government’ (Aust. Outlook, xxxiii); K.C. Beazley and I . Clark, The Politics of intrusion: the super powers and the Indian Ocean (Sydney: Alternative Pub. Co-op., $19.76); and P. Towle, Naval power in the Indian Ocean: threat, bluff and fantasies (Canberra: A.N.U. Strategic and Defence Studies Centre).

New Zealand (Prices in NZ $ unless otherwise stated). Two general reference works were published: A.W. Reed, Two hundred years of New Zealand histov, 1769- 1969: a samplethronology (Wellington: Reed Trust, %12.95), and F. Porter (ed), Historical buildings of New Zealand the North Island (Auckland Cassell, $30), the first of two volumes by the Historic Places Trust. On Maori history, M.P.K. Sorrenson, Maori origins and migrations: the genesis

of some Pakeha myths and legends (Auckland U.P./O.U.P., $5.85), examines the way Europeans from the time of Cook have used Maori myths as evidence to construct theories of Maori origins. There are several regional works on the Maori: J.T. Diamond, The Maori history and legends of the Waitakere Ranges (Auckland Lodestar Press, $4.25); A.C. Lyall, Whakatohea of Opotiki (Wellington: Reed, $10.95), a survey to the 1860s, and two large works on the prophet Rua: P.J. Webster, an anthropologist, Rua and the Maori millenium (Wellington: Price Milburn, %18), who sees Rua’s appeal in the context of anomie and relative deprivation, and J. Binney et al, a historian, Mihaia: the Prophet Rua Kennan and his community at Maungapohatu (Wellington: O.U.P., $19.95), which is more descriptive. Both are lavishly illustrated. On the coming of the Europeans there are F.A. Porter, A sense of history: a commemorative publication for John Cawte Beaglehole, OM, about James Cook’s landing sites in New Zealand (Wellington: Govt. Printer, 1978), and G.R.V. Barratt, Bellinghausen: his visit to New Zealand, 1820 (Palmerston North Dunmore Press, $16.50). There are a few items of biography and memoirs. Firstly, two volumes of edited letters: J.B.F. Pompallier, The Pompallier Papers, trans. by E.R. Simmons (Auckland: Archives of the Catholic Diocese, gratis), on the first R.C. missionary bishop, and S.W. Grief and H. Knight, Cutten: Letters revealing the l$e and times of William Henry Cutten (Dunedin: F.H. Knight, $15), on one of the Otago pioneers. C.G. Rodcliffe, Richard Pearse: a

External affairs continue to be well served, and another volume of the excellent

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pioneer aviator (Western Springs: Museum of Science and Tech., $2.75), is on New Zealand’s controversial contemporary of the Wright brothers. S.M. Belshaw, Man of integrity: a biography of Sir Clzpon Webb (Palmerston North Dunmore Press, $17.95), is by the subject’s daughter. There are two rare memoirs by academics: W.P. Morrell (an historian) Memoirs (Dunedin: McIndoe, $14.95), and E.M. Blaiklock (a classicist) Between the valley and the sea: a West Aukland boyhood (Palmerston North Dunmore Press, $7.95).

There is a growing interest in ‘social’ history and social institutions. N.Z.J. Hist., xiii, has a special issue on this subject with articles followed by commentaries given at a Turnbull Library Conference. These are: D.A. Hamer, ‘Towns in nineteenth century New Zealand‘; W.H. Oliver, ‘Social policy in the liberal period’; M. Tennant, ‘Duncan MacGregor and charitable aid administration, 1886-1 896’; M. Fairburn, ‘Social mobility and opportunity in nineteenth-century New Zealand’; C. Toynbee, ‘Class and social structure in nineteenth-century New Zealand’; D.G. Pearson, ‘Class, status and reminiscence: a research note’; S.R. Strachan, ‘Archives for New Zealand social history’; G. Rice, ‘Christchurch in the 1918 influenza epidemic: a preliminary study’; and I. Breward, ‘Religion and New Zealand society’. Other works on New Zealand society: P.G. Koopman-Boyden (ed), Families in New Zealand (Wellington: Methuen, 1978, $12.95), includes an historical survey of European families by E. Olssen; A.J. Hammerton, Emigrant gentlewomen: genteel poverty and female migration, 1830-1914 (London: Croom Helm, f8.50), includes a study of Mary Taylor, a New Zealand case-study; C. Newman (ed), Canterbury women since 1893 (Christchurch: Pegasus, $6); and two titles on migrant groups, A.D. Trlin, Now respected, once despised: Yugoslavs in New Zealand (Palmerston North: Dunmore, $8.95), and T.B. Laxten, British migration to New Zealand: the post-warperiod (Wellington: Victoria Univ., $3), which includes mathematical models. There are several titles dealing with education: N.M. Benfell, Bishop Selwyn and New Zealand education (Hamilton: Waikato Inst. of Educ., 1978), which adopts a systems approach; R.W. Boshier, Adult and continuing education in New Zealand, 1851-1978: a bibliography (Vancouver B.C.: U.B.C., Can$ 7.75); J.J. Lewis, The Trinity College story (Tauranga: Wesley Hist.Soc., $2.75), on the Methodist theological college of Auckland; H.N. Parton, The University of New Zealand (Auckland U.P./O.U.P., $1 6), on the federal examining system which existed 1874-196 1. Other institutions now have their histories: D. Burke, Mercy through the years: the centennial history of the Sisters of Mercy, Christchurch diocese, 1878-1978 (Christchurch: Sisters of Mercy Trust Board, 1978); D.F. Dugdale, Lawful occasions: notes on the history of the Auckland District Law Society, 1879-1979 (Auckland District Law SOC., $2.50); the much more substantial work by M.J. Cullen, Lawfully occupied: the centennial history of the Otago District Law Society (Dunedin: Otago District Law SOC., $ 1 5 ) ; J.E. Sanders, Dateline, NZPA: the New Zealand Press As~:ociution, 1880-1980 (Auckland: Wilson and Horton); and two sacred institutions which are covered in R.H. Chester, Men in black: 75 years of New Zealand international rugby (Auckland: Moa Publications, 1978, $8.50); and A.M. Hilton, The Wellington Racing Club: a centennial history (Wellington: Reed, $12.95).

There are a few titles relating to economic history, including two rare company histories. J.K. Coulson, Golden harvest: grass seeding days on Banks Peninsular (Palmerston North: Dunmore), deals with the once-flourishing cocksfoot industry. N.S. Woods, Troubled heritage: the main stream of developments in private-sector industrial relations in New Zealand, 1894-1 978 (Wellington: Victoria Univ.). H .R Wigley, The Mount Cook way: thefirstfijly years of the Mount Cook Company

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(Auckland: Collins, $13.95), is the story of a tourist and transport firm by its former- manager. I.H. Discoll, Airline: the making of a nationalflag carrier (Auckland: Shortland Pubs., $12.95), deals with the history of Air New Zealand, and D. Lowe, The Flying-Boat era (Auckland Lodestar Press, 1978), covers aspects of military and civil aviation, 193740.

There are a few items of militaria. M. Barthrop, To face the daring Maoris: soldiers impressions of thejirst Maori War, 1845-47 (Auckland Hodder and Stoughton, $14.50), takes a rather old-fashioned approach. L.H. Barker, Kia KahaC a history of the Haurakis 1898-1978 (Tauranga. Six Battalion RNZIR, 1978, $3), is the history of a territorial army unit. L. MacDonald, They called it Passchendale: the story of the Third Battle of Ypres and the men who fought in it (Londos Michael Joseph, 1978, E6.95), includes material on the New Zealand forces. C.R Mentriplay, Ajighting quality: New Zealanders at war (Wellington: Reed, $5.95), is a popular introduction to World War II. On foreign affairs there is D. McCraw, ‘New Zealand‘s Second Labor Government and the problem of the recognition of China’ (AustJ of Pol. and Hist., xxv).

scientists, L. Cleveland, The politics of Utopia: New Zealand and its government (Wellington: Methuen, $12.75), and S.L. Levine, The New Zealand political system politics in a small society (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, Aus$ 12.15). G.W.R Palmer, Unbridled power: an interpretation of New Zealand’s Constitution (Wellington: O.U.P., $8.95), is by a law professor-turned Labour M.P. J.L. Robson, The Ombudsman and New Zealand (Wellington: Victoria U.Inst of Criminology), surveys the evolution of the Commonwealth’s pioneer parliamentary commissioner. M. Parker, The S.I.S. (Palmerston North: Dunmore, $1 3.93, is a journalistic survey of the security intelligence service and its relation with its British and Australian equivalents. Regional and local history continues to flourish, with its animal crop of borough, school and parish centennial publications; some general comments and a full bibliography are available in W.G. Gardner, ‘New Zealand regional history and its place in the schools’ (N.Z.J. Hist., xiii).

A few titles on politics also include historical material. Two are by political

The Pacific On pre-history two general works have appeared: J.D. Jennings (ed), Thepre-history of Polynesia (Canberra: A.N.U.P. Aus$ 37.50), and P. Bellwood, The Polynesian: pre-history of an island people (London: Thames & Hudson, 1978, di9.95). J. Pacific Hist., xiv, has a series of articles on traditional history: P.M. Mercer, ‘Oral tradition in the Pacific: problems of interpretation’; B. Douglas, ‘Rank, power and authority: a reassessment of the traditional leadership in South Pacific societies’; N. Gunson, ‘The hau concept of leadership in Western Polynesia’; and A. Chowning, ‘Leadership in Melanesia’.

On the impact of Europe, O.H.K. Spate has published the first volume of a major series on The Pacsc since Magellan: the Spanish Iake (Canberra: A.N.U.P. Aus$ 35). D. Scarr, More Pacifrc island portraits (Canberra: A.N.U.P., Aus$ 9.95), consists of 13 biographical essays. There is also renewed interest in exploration. One title is on Torres: B. Hilder, The voyage of Torres: the discovery of the southern coasthe of New Guinea and Torres Strait by Captain Luis Baez.de Torres in I606 (St. Lucia: Queensland U.P., Aus$ 22). There are six works on Cook J.C. Beaglehole, The death of Captain Cook (Wellington: O.U.P., NZ$ lo), is an illustrated edition of a paper originally given in 1964, which the Alexander Turnbull Library has also published in a limited, special edition at NZ$ 130). On the same subject there is R. Hough, The murder of Captain James Cook (London: Macmillan,

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27.95). Other Cook titles: R. Fisher and H. Johnson, Captain James Cook and his times (Canberra: A.N.U.P., Aus$ 18.50); J.N. Hurd and M. Kadama (eds), Captain Cook and the Pacific Islands (Honolulu: U. of Hawaii, 1978), papers from a conference; D. Conner, Master mariner: Captain James Cook and the peoples of the Paczxc (Seattle: Washington U.P., 1978); arid the facsimile edition of J. Cook, The Journal of H M S Endeavour, 1768-1 771 (Adelaide: Rigby, Aus% 265.44). Other voyages: W . Bligh, A voyage to the South Seas ... (Richmond, Vic.: Hutchinson); RD. Keynes, The Beagle record: selections j?om the original pictorial records and written accounts of the voyage of HMS Beagle (C.U.P., f 30 ) and R FitzRoy, A narrative of the surveying voyages of HMSs Adventure and Beagle (London: Folio Soc., f7.50).

The Islands are taken from west to east. Papa-New Guinea has two general works by J. Griffin, Papua New Guinea independent: a political history (Richmond, Vic.: Heinemam), and Papua New Guinea portraits: the expatriate experience (Canberra: A.N.U.P., 1978, Aus$ 9.95). Indigenous life is covered by N.K. Robinson, Villages at war: some Papua New Guinea experiences in World War 11 (Canberra: A.N.U.P., Aus$ 8); P. Brown ‘Chimbu leadership before provincial govemment’ (J.Pac.Hist.. xiv); K. Good, ‘Colonialism and settler colonialism: a comparison’, and D. Plowman, ‘Some aspects of trade union development in Papua New Guinea’ (both in Aurt. Outlook, xxx); and R Wardell, ‘Local govemment in P a p a New Guinea from 1949 to 1973’ (Aust.J. of Pol. and Hist., xxv). J. Jupp and M. Sawer, ‘New Hebrides 1978-9: self-government by whom, for whom’ (J. Pacixc Hist., xiv), discusses the background to the new state of Vanuatu. Fiji has more titles than usual, including a general survey of the self-government decades: I . Lasaqa, The Fijian people before and afer independence, 1959-1977 (Canberra: A.N.U.P.). There is also a survey of the Indian population: V. Mishra (ed), Rama’s banishment: a centenaly tribute to the Fiji Indians, 1879-1979 (Auckland: Heinemann, NZ$ 9.95). On the spread of Christianity, there is A.C. Reid, ‘The view from Vatu-waqa: Lakeba’s leading lineage in the introduction and establishment of Christianity’ (J. Pacific Hist., xiv). The second volume of D. Scm’s biography of an eccentric pro- consul has appeared, The majesty of colour, a life of Sir John Bates Thurston, 11, Viceroy of the Pacific (Canberra: A.N.U. Development Studs. Centre), and on politics, J. Nation, Custom and respect: the Traditional basis of Fijian communal politics (Canberra: A.N.U.P., 1978, Aus$ 8). There are two titles on the Cook Islands politics: K. Hancock, Sir Albert Henry: his life and times (Auckland: Methuen, NZ$ 9.95), about the controversial first premier, and one by his rival and successor, T.RA. Davis, Cook Island politics: the inside story (Auckland: Polynesian Press, 1978, NZ$ 6.95).

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