EXPATRIATE JOURNALIST and film-maker John Pilger writes about his homeland with life-long affection and a passionately critical eye. In this fully updated edition of A SECRET COUNTRY, he pays tribute to a little known Australia and tells a story of high political drama.
--This text refers to the
Kindle Edition
edition.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
An Australian-born journalist and documentary filmmaker now living in London, Pilger provides a bracing rebuttal of the conventional view of his native land as an egalitarian nation with homes and jobs for all. Praising the innovative social reforms that made turn-of-the century Australia famous as a "Workers' Paradise," Pilger contends that these benefits have been abrogated in the '80s as a result of the Conservative Labor Party government's tax giveaways to the "Order of Mates" (including media mogul Rupert Murdoch and beer baron Alan Bond), which has resulted in an economic crisis. In addition, the author argues, white Australians have never acknowledged that their country was founded on the genocide of the aborigines, still discriminated against today, and has been run ever since as a colonial tool, first of Great Britain and now of the United States--the CIA, the author suggests in convincing detail, connived in the 1975 overthrow of a Labor government unpopular with the U.S. Pilger's strong tone may alienate those who don't already agree with him, but he backs up his contentions with careful documentation. Overall, though, his thoughtful book will appeal to those seeking a more realistic understanding of the land Down Under. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Pilger, an Australian journalist, argues that while Australia has developed a popular image as a nation of koalas and Crocodile Dundees, it is in fact a secret country with a dark past that includes the slaughter of entire Aboriginal tribes. He also believes that Australia continues to be dominated by British and American imperialism; the British via a governor-general who can sack the elected government at any time (which happened to the Whitlam government in 1975), and America via its military dominance of the South Pacific and its economic ties with Australia. Further, Pilger argues Australia has been betrayed by its own leaders who have created a transnational economy that compels it to sell off its resources and rely on tourism and international money markets. This has led to reduced wages, lower living standards, and poverty for many. Unless Australia casts off British and American influence and starts to manage its resources wisely, it will face a dismal future. Recommended for large academic and public library collections.
- Jeffrey R. Herold, Bucyrus P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Jeffrey R. Herold, Bucyrus P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
True Australia - beyond Bondi and kangaroos,
By G Phillips (Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Secret Country: The Hidden Australia (Hardcover)
Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard once dismissed alternative histories of Australia as a 'black armband view of history', preferring instead the version of passive natives, gentle colonisers and hard working convicts turning good. Pilger was amongst the first Australian authors to look beyond this whitewashed view of history and show that Australia is not the lucky country based on a sense of fair play, mateship and equality. Instead, he pulls away the curtain to show the racism, brutality and genocide that has characterised the Australian ccontinent since the white invasion of 1788. We need authors such as Pilger to show the truth of Australia and I can highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to know more about the dark underbelly of the so called 'lucky country'
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should be mandatory Australian high school reading,
By Galen White (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Secret Country: The Hidden Australia (Hardcover)
This is the history that is sadly missing from the corporate press and the Australian education system.I spent 6 years learning about the folkloric mythology of the Aussie battler, without even 5 minutes covering the massacres that took place within a 30km radius of my school. Essential reading for issues from the First Fleet to the coup in 1976.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What's wrong with being shocked?,
This review is from: A Secret Country: The Hidden Australia (Hardcover)
Yeah, Pilger does tend to shout, as reviewer G. Rogers ("Trouble in Paradise") correctly points out. But shouting isn't always just to "make up for the weakness of the argument". It can also signal exasperation. Or a desire to warn, alert, awaken.
As an Australian, I found this book a revelation when I read it twenty years ago. Particularly his well annotated discussion of the events that led to "The Dismissal" of 11 Nov 1975. That was a deeply strange and troubling time in the Lucky Country (cf. Australian_constitutional_crisis_of_1975 at Wikipedia), and Pilger's chapter casts real light on it, without depending on "deep throat/cigarette man" anonymous informants for either his insights or his information. Sidebar. I navigated to this page today because of a sentence I read this morning: "Israeli security officials said they were looking at ways to force Hamas from power, and were focusing on an economic squeeze that would prompt Palestinians to clamour for the return of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' ousted Fatah Party." (Amy Tiebel, Canadian Press, 14feb06). It just rang a bell, that's all. I give the book five stars because it blazed new territory when it was written, and has been ignored and insulted rather than discredited in the years since. Anyone interested in Australia (other than as a meaningless tourist destination) should at least consider reading this fine and passionate book. Highly recommended.
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