Phil Shannon

The people who ended 'Jim Crow'

The Thunder of Angels: The Montgomery Bus Boycott & the People Who Broke the Back of Jim Crow
By Donnie Williams with Wayne Greenshaw
Lawrence Hill Books, 2007
293 pages, $23.95 (pb)

The making of "the news"

Flat Earth News: An Award-winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion & Propaganda in the Global Media
By Nick Davies
Chatto & Windus, 2008
408 pages, $54.95 (hb)

A life-long fighter for women's equality

Cups with no Handles: Memoir of a Grassroots Activist
By Carolyn Landon
Hybrid Publishers, 2008
288 pages, $29.95 (pb)

A deeply flawed friend of Aboriginal people

Desert Queen: The Many Lives and Loves of Daisy Bates
By Susana de Vries
HarperCollins, 2008
294 pages, $33 (pb) Daisy Baites: Grand Dame of the Desert
By Bob Reece
National Library of Australia, 2007
205 pages, $24.95 (pb)

Fisk — the journalist who asked 'Why'

The Age of the Warrior: Selected Writings
By Robert Fisk
Fourth Estate, 2008
522 pages, $30 (pb)

A serious writer of the left

All Governments Lie! The Life & Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone
By Myra Macpherson
Scribner, 2008
564 pp, $29 (pb)

James Hansen's struggle to tell the truth

Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen & the Truth of Global Warming
By Mark Bowen
Dutton, 2008
324 pages, $49.95 (hb)

Pirates saving the whales

The Whale Warriors: On Board a Pirate Ship in the Battle to Save the World’s Largest Mammals
By Peter Heller
HarperCollins, 2007
303pages, $28 (pb)

Counting the cost of the Iraq war

The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict
By Joseph Stiglitz & Linda Bilmes
Allen Lane, 2008
311 pages, $32.95 (pb)

Why did the 'Man of Steel' get scrapped?

‘Exit Right: The Unravelling of John Howard’
By Judith Brett
Quarterly Essay, Issue 28, 2007
Black Inc. $15.95 (pb)

Bastards, the lot of them

Fridge Magnets are Bastards: An A-Z Rant About Annoying People & Useless Things in the Modern World
By Mark Dapin
HarperCollins, 2007, 262 pp, $24.99 (pb)

A diarist of the tragedy of war

Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: An Extraordinary Diary of Courage from the Vietnam War
By Dand Thuy Tram
Rider, 2007
225 pages, $32.95 (pb)