Remembering the Holocaust explains why the Holocaust has come to be considered the central event of the 20th century, and what this means. Presenting Jeffrey Alexander's controversial essay that, in the words of Geoffrey Hartman, has already become a classic in the Holocaust literature, and following up with challenging and equally provocative responses to it, this book offers a sweeping historical reconstruction of the Jewish mass murder as it evolved in the popular imagination of Western peoples, as well as an examination of its consequences.

Alexander's inquiry points to a...

In the third Quarterly Essay for 2011, Robert Manne investigates the forces that shape public debate in Australia. When it comes to key issues for the nation, who sets the media agenda and how do they do it?

This is not a book of documents, snippets or worthy speeches. Instead it presents the original essays and the moments of insight that told us what Australia is and could be.
These are the essential statements - from historians, reporters, novelists, mavericks and visionaries - that take us from Federation to the present-day, and tell a story of national self-discovery.
There is the Frenchman who saw that Australia was a 'workingman's paradise', and the historian who explained why.
The two reporters who realised the true significance of Gallipoli and conveyed it to the nation....

There are few original ideas in politics. In the creation of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange was responsible for one.

This essay reveals the making of Julian Assange - both his ideas and his world-changing actions. Robert Manne explores Assange's unruly childhood and then his involvement with the revolutionary cypherpunk underground, all the way through to the creation of WikiLeaks. Pulling together the threads of his development, Manne shows how Assange became one of the most influential Australians of our time.

Robert Manne's many books include Making Trouble and...