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Julianne Schultz

Author of Tasmania: The Tipping Point?

62 Works 458 Members 7 Reviews

About the Author

Professor Julianne Schultz was born in 1956 in Australia. She is a journalist, academic, and author who has edited over 30 books. She is also the founding editor of the Australian literary journal Griffith Review. She is currently a Professor at Griffith University's Centre for Public Culture and show more Ideas and is Chair of the Queensland Design Council. She is also the librettist of two operas composed by her brother, Andrew Schultz, titled Black River and Going into Shadows. Schultz completed a PhD at the University of Sydney in 1987, in which she explored the contemporary relevance of the fourth estate to the practice of journalism in Australia. Schultz began her career as a reporter with the ABC, moving then to report for the Australian Financial Review. While working at the University of Technology, Schultz became the Founding Director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism. She is a director of the board of the following organisations: The Grattan Institute, The Foundation for Public Interest Journalism, The Centre for Advanced Journalism, and The Editorial Board of the Companion of Australian Media. She was a director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 2009 and 2014. She will be speaking at the inaugural History Writers' Festival at Readers' Feast Bookstore in Melbourne in April 2015. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Series

Works by Julianne Schultz

The Idea of Australia (2022) 17 copies
The Lure of Fundamentalism (2005) 16 copies
Re-imagining Australia (2008) 12 copies
Essentially creative (2009) 12 copies
The Trouble with Paradise (2006) 12 copies
Divided nation (2007) 11 copies
Hidden Queensland (2008) 11 copies
Family politics (2005) 11 copies
Unintended Consequences (2007) 11 copies
The Annual Fiction Edition (2010) 11 copies
Such is Life (2011) 9 copies
Pacific highways (2014) 9 copies
After the Crisis (2009) 9 copies
Still the Lucky Country? (2010) 9 copies
People like us (2005) 9 copies
The next big thing (2006) 8 copies
Food chain (2010) 8 copies
Surviving (2012) 8 copies
Addicted to Celebrity (2004) 8 copies
Stories for today (2009) 8 copies
Not Just Another Business (1994) 7 copies
In the neighbourhood (2007) 6 copies
Participation society (2009) 6 copies
Staying Alive (2007) 6 copies
Looking West (2015) 6 copies
Cultural solutions (2014) 5 copies
First things first (2018) 4 copies
Prosper or perish (2010) 4 copies
Steel City Blues (1985) 3 copies

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Common Knowledge

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Reviews

shawjonathan.com/2023/08/31/julianne-schultzs-idea-of-australia/
 
Flagged
shawjonathan | 1 other review | Aug 30, 2023 |
Gosh, I thought when I opened this book to 6 pages of enthusiastic praise from advance readers... what can I possibly say about The Idea of Australia, a search for the soul of the nation, that hasn't been said by these eminent Australians?

Who are they? Not your average blurbers!

They're all public intellectuals, who like Schultz herself, are engaged in what we might call the Australia Project: a plethora of Professors including Glyn Davis, Tom Griffith, Jenny Hocking, Ann Curthoys, Frank Bongiorno and Clare Wright; journalists Kerry O'Brien and Tony Koch; authors and editors of important books like Peter Mares, Yassmin Abdel-Magid, and Melissa Lucashenko. That's just half of them, the ones that I've read.

Well, I'm not going to try to cover the same territory in a different way, except to say that this is a very timely book. We are about to have an election, which gives us a chance to reset directions in important ways. I should also say that if you have already decided that you have had enough of the present government and its commitment to its ideological predecessors you will probably enjoy this book and its wide-ranging survey of Australia and its issues. If you are undecided, you will probably find it interesting if not always even-handed, and if you are planning to vote for more of the same, well, no book will help you.

The blurb gives an indication of the issues we need to think about, when we cast a vote...

In lieu of a proper review, I'll quote the clarion call at the end of the book, with one from the beginning to give it context. In the first chapter, titled 'Terra Nullius of the Mind', Schultz quotes from David Marr's book My Country:
My country is the subject that interests me most, and I have spent my career trying to untangle its mysteries... Wanting to understand my country came, right from the start, with wanting it to change. I had a naïve notion that change would come simply by setting out the facts with clarity and goodwill. I had a lot to learn... Why I wonder, is a secular, educated, prosperous and decent country so prey to fear and capable of such cruelty? Why are we ruled from the edges? (P4)

Schultz explores these contradictions in 400+ passionate pages of philosophy, political history and memoir, and she comes to the conclusion that boldness is needed.
Be bold, be bold, be bold. Reform is hard. But worth it. Adopting this ambition and applying the values of respect and truthfulness, imagination, fairness and egalitarianism would be a start. Platitudes are not enough. A fully formed nation—grounded in a civic, not ethnic, way of belonging—without fear is still possible. The soul of the nation has a rich inner life. It holds the dreams and stories of those who have always been here and those who have come in waves ever since.

My search for the soul of the nation tells me that despite the noise from the fringes, and Canberra's selective hearing, many, maybe even most, Australians are willing to be bold. (p.416)


For links to other reviews and an extract to read, please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/04/04/the-idea-of-australia-a-search-for-the-soul-...
… (more)
 
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anzlitlovers | 1 other review | Apr 4, 2022 |
... The most recent Griffith Review #59, Commonwealth Now is a must read if you are interested in Big Picture issues that confront us as Australians.
See my review at https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/01/30/griffith-review-59-commonwealth-now-edited-b...
 
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anzlitlovers | Jan 30, 2018 |

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Works
62
Members
458
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Rating
4.0
Reviews
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ISBNs
94

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