August 2025, no. 478
On the eightieth anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, historian Clinton Fernandes delivers a gripping reassessment of the world’s only use of atomic bombs against civilians and exposes the ‘superweapon alibi’ that enabled a politically convenient end to World War II for both the United States and Japan. Amanda Laugesen and Frank Bongiorno ask if the Australian language is worth saving and Ruby Lowe reports on First Nations publisher Magabala Books. ABR proudly announces the 2025 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize shortlist and Tara Sharman becomes the youngest ever winner of an ABR prize at just twenty-two years old. Elsewhere, there are reviews by Lynda Ng, Geordie Williamson, Judith Brett, Zora Simic, Bain Attwood, Jennifer Mills, Lucy Sussex, original poems by Ella Jeffery and Derek Chan, and an interview with Andy Griffiths.
Full Contents
Fleeced: Unravelling the history of wool and war by Trish FitzSimons and Madelyn Shaw
Dear Unknown Friend: The remarkable correspondence between American and Soviet women by Alexis Peri
‘The story of our language is the story of us: Will the Australian National Dictionary Centre go bung?’
Miles Franklin Undercover: The little-known years when she created her own brilliant career by Kerrie Davies
Vietdamned: How the world’s greatest minds put America on trial by Clive Webb
Segregation and Assimilation in York, Western Australia: A mid-twentieth century truth-telling case study by Roland See
Contaminated Country: Nuclear colonialism and Aboriginal resistance in Australia by Jessica Urwin
The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyer, translated from German by Ruth Martin
Values in Cities: Urban heritage in twentieth-century Australia by James Lesh
