In Search of Good Government: Great Expectations & Political Amnesia

author: Laura Tingle
name: Kim
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2018/07/19
date added: 2018/07/23
shelves:
review:
Laura Tingle does something few of our political commentators manage: to write with the deep insight of an insider without revealing her partisan leanings and maintaining the perspective of an outsider. She also has a keen appreciation not only of recent history, but also puts things in a historical light. (I particularly enjoyed her drawing parallels with the reporting from the Crimean War of the 19th century with the short memory of the modern news cycle.)
But above all, I learnt a lot from the way she put the last 3 decades of Australian politics into context, drawing broad developments from both the seminal events as well as lesser known anecdotes, offering perspective to both the actors and the times in which they acted.
Read her book for a thorough understanding of why our democracy finds itself in the malaise we are in – then read mine: “Why Democracy is Broken – A Blueprint for Change” for the solutions.