Peter Haig

Peter Haig reviews ‘The Presidents: The transformation of the presidency from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush’ by Stephen Graubard

September 2005, no. 274 • 01 September 2005

The parameters of the twentieth century have, in the hands of historians, proved rather malleable. The need to contextualise the ‘End of History’, and a belief that eras are less arbitrarily and more accurately defined by events than by calendars, justified Eric Hobsbawm’s chosen bookends to his acclaimed Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991 (1994). Harvard historian Ste ... (read more)

Peter Haig reviews ‘Packer’s Lunch’ by Neil Chenoweth

June-July 2006, no. 282 • 01 June 2006

One of the three central protagonists of Neil Chenoweth’s book, Graham Richardson, famously titled his autobiography Whatever It Takes (1994). Despite the title’s hints at candour, Richardson’s book eluded all but the most passing references to Kerry Packer. As Chenoweth points out in his alarming new book, this, from the man John Button had dubbed the Minister for Kerry Packer, represented ... (read more)

Peter Haig reviews 'Secrets of the Jury Room: Inside the black box of criminal justice In Australia' by Malcolm Knox and 'The Gentle Art of Persuasion: How to argue effectively' by Chester Porter

October 2005, no. 275 • 01 October 2005

According to Aristotle, rhetoric is ‘the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion’. In today’s parlance, the term is often used pejoratively, connoting an obfuscation of truth. This would come as no surprise to Aristotle, whose treatise on the topic, Rhetorica, demonstrated an acute awareness of the dangers posed by the adroit manipulation of the means of pe ... (read more)

Peter Haig reviews 'The Rise of Anti-Americanism' edited by Brendon O'Connor and Martin Griffiths

May 2006, no. 281 • 01 May 2006

Conservative columnist Mark Steyn has mocked modern progressives for having no enemies, just friends whose grievances are yet to be accommodated. The decision as to whether grievances are best accommodated or confronted is one safely made only if informed by a deep understanding of the particular discontent. Brendon O’Connor (Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and Public Policy at Gri ... (read more)

Peter Haig reviews 'Legacy of Ashes' by Tim Weiner

December 2007–January 2008, no. 297 • 01 December 2007

Of the many damning revelations contained in this book, the fact that Allan Dulles, the CIA’s longest serving director (1953–61), would assess the merits of intelligence briefings by their weight is among the most startling. Coming in at 700 pages, Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA is sufficiently hefty to have commanded Dulles’s attention. Were he alive today to read th ... (read more)

Peter Haig reviews 'An American Notebook: A personal and political journey' by Michael Gawenda

October 2007, no. 295 • 01 October 2007

As the full extent of the American misadventure in Iraq becomes increasingly clear, liberal hawks, neo-conservatives and others who lent their voices to the initial call to arms have had cause to reconsider their positions. The rush to recant, however, has not exactly been a stampede. For the majority of its proponents, the decision to invade Iraq was so tied to an entrenched philosophy or ideolog ... (read more)