Matthew Lamb

Matthew Lamb reviews ‘Character Limit: How Elon Musk destroyed Twitter’ by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac

January–February 2025, no. 472 • 16 December 2024

On 26 October 2002, two days before closing a deal to purchase Twitter for US$44 billion (A$61.4 billion), Elon Musk walked into its San Francisco headquarters carrying a white porcelain sink. He walked up to an unattended front desk in the lobby and said, to no one: ‘You can’t help but let that sink in.’ Of course, he didn’t really say this to no one. His triumphant entrance at Twitter HQ ... (read more)

Matthew Lamb reviews ‘Seeking Racial Justice’ by Jack Horner and ‘Black and White Together’ by Sue Taffe

August 2005, no. 273 • 01 August 2005

The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) was a national organisation that existed, in one form or another, from 1958 to 1978. For the main part, it drew its members from a network of both black and white groups, from active citizens and from those who wanted to be counted as such. Two recent books examine the impact and legacy of this organisatio ... (read more)

‘Copyright and its discontents: Frank Moorhouse’s battle to defend authors’ by Matthew Lamb

June 2024, no. 465 • 22 May 2024

It is only a coincidence that my book Frank Moorhouse: Strange paths, the first in a two-volume cultural biography of the Australian author, ends in 1974 – the same year that Copyright Agency was incorporated – and that it was published in time to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this incorporation. As Moorhouse himself always argued, such coincidences, chance happenings, and historical ... (read more)

Matthew Lamb reviews 'Nowhere people' by Henry Reynolds

April 2006, no. 280 • 01 April 2006

In 1936, West Australian MP Leslie Craig stated in parliament that the (then) current figure of Aboriginal ‘half-castes’ in Australia – approximately 4000 – would soon number 40,000 if something were not done to stem the tide of this growing problem. Seventy years later, in 2006, a federal member of parliament has suggested that Australia is in danger of ‘aborting itself out of existence ... (read more)

Matthew Lamb reviews 'The Australian Moment: How we were made for these times' by George Megalogenis

April 2012, no. 340 • 01 April 2012

In The Australian Moment: How We Were Made for These Times, George Megalogenis tries to explain how, in spite of ourselves, we managed to survive the last three ‘super crashes of the digital age’. He does so by actively avoiding the usual partisan morality tales, complete with intra-party rivalry, concerning which side of politics can take credit for our successes, blame for our failures, or w ... (read more)