As this eloquent and important book shows, no one in Australia makes a better argument than Robert Manne.
In Making Trouble, Australia's leading public intellectual takes aim at the 'new Australian complacency'.
This is a book that will enlighten and provoke. It covers much ground – from Howard to Gillard by way of Rudd, from Victoria's bushfires to the Apology, from Wilfred Burchett to Primo Levi.
Making Trouble includes an essay on the new Australian complacency, as well an exchange of letters with Tony Abbott, an appreciation of W.E.H. Stanner, a reflection on ways of remembering the Holocaust and an incisive analysis of the asylum-seeker issue, among others.
Robert Manne is emeritus professor of politics at La Trobe University. His recent books include On Borrowed Time, Making Trouble: Essays Against the New Complacency, and The Words that Made Australia (as co-editor). He has written three Quarterly Essays and is a regular contributor to the Monthly and the Guardian.