Item category 1: Society & Culture

Subject: Over the years, startling evidence has neen uncovered, challenging established notions of the origins of life on Earth--evidence that suggests the existence of an advanced group of extraterrestrials who once inhabited our world.

In 1978 a 13-year-old schoolgirl, Genette Tate, vanished while out delivering newspapers; no trace of her was ever discovered. With new and rarely seen comments from family, police and inside the courtroom, this story links her case to the earlier abductions of April Fabb, Christine Markham and M...

Annotation. Buddha is not just an image or a statue of the great enlightened universal teacher, Sakyamuni Buddha, or any other historical Buddha. It also means an enlightened mind that is pristinely aware of the unequivocal reality. Every sentient being has the potential to be awakened to an enli...

Sheds new light on such mysteries as the Biblical flood, the Great Pyramids, the massive ziggurats of Mesopotamia, the Exodus, the Trojan Wars, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and others.

Troy has fallen. After 10 years of war, the Greeks make their way back to their own lands -- but what homes now await them? Agamemnon must return to his wife Clytemnestra, who has been nursing her rage since he sacrificed their daughter to the gods for a favourable wind. Her revenge will know no ...

The twentieth issue of Australian Foreign Affairs examines Australia's momentous decision to form a security pact with the United States and the United Kingdom that includes an ambitious, expensive and risky plan to acquire nuclear-power submarines - a move that will have far-reaching military an...

This publication provides a pioneering study of the transition from war to peace and the birth of humanitarian rights after the Great War.

An exploration of the dark world of serial murder in the 20th and 21st century. Covering international cult figures from H.H. Holmes to Luis Garavito (La Beastia), examining psychological motivations of serial murderers, and presenting some of the most terrifying unsolved cases to date, Serial Ki...

Among the topics covered in this introduction to the largest and oldest institution in the world are the origins of the Catholic Church, how Catholicism has changed and adapted over the centuries and the challenges the Catholic Church faces in the 21st century.

Elon Musk, head of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of Twitter, has become a neo-reactionary online troll. What has caused his troubling political transformation? In a captivating essay, Richard Cooke explores Musk's spectacular ambition, and how it has shaped his transition from unorthodox liberal to ...

LANGUAGE: HISTORY & GENERAL WORKS. How many languages are there? What differentiates one language from another? Are new languages still being discovered? Why are so many languages disappearing? The diversity of languages today is varied, but it is steadily declining. In this Very Short Introducti...

Freedom of expression and tolerance are considered core features of our democracy. Free speech was at the centre of a recent controversial debate in federal politics regarding changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act to remove the words "offend, insult, humiliate" from section 18C,...

In this collection's featured case, a family man dedicated to naturopathic healing embarks on a passionate affair with a flight attendant, but his jealous rages frighten her. When she finally leaves after a brutal attack, she has no idea that her tormentor would reappear in her life -- with deadl...

Food safety is the concept that food will not cause harm to the consumer when prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use. In Australia we rely on food safety standards to protect us from food-borne illness and food poisoning caused by poor handling, contamination, storage and temperature...

It has been over twenty years since the release of the landmark Bringing them home report and more than a decade since the national apology was delivered by then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Stolen Generations survivors -- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who have suffered as the...

Nearly half of Australian children aged 9-16 years experience regular exposure to sexual images via the media, online and hand-held devices. Pornography does not exist in a digital vacuum, but rather within a broader social context which reinforces sexual attitudes, beliefs and stereotypesabout g...

Plastic products and packaging are integral to modern daily life. Plastic is durable, cheap, light and can be flexible or rigid, with multiple uses -- however, plastic is also making the planet a victim of its own success. Plastic pollution has become an epidemic, afflicting land, waterways, coas...

Indigenous Australians are among the most incarcerated people on Earth. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make up 2% of all Australians, yet constitute more than a quarter of the nation's prison population. Over-representation in the criminal justice system by Indigenous men, women and young...

Most people suffer from stress at some point in their lives, yet it affects people in different ways. A certain level of stress is necessary to motivate us to reach our potential, however if we experience too much stress, it can become a serious health concern. This guide is aimed at helping youn...

When Athens went to war with Sparta some 2,500 years ago, the Greek historian Thucydides identified one simple cause: a rising power threatened to displace a ruling one, leading inexorably to conflict. As Graham Allison explains, in the past 500 years, great powers have found themselves in 'Thucy...

The complete backstory of Japanese cuisine explained in richly illustrated manga style! This book explores the fascinating history, lore and practice of Japanese cooking through the eyes of Manabu, a young man who aspires to become a professional Japanese chef. Each chapter presents a new set of ...

When Marion Barter disappeared in 1997, police initially dismissed it as the actions of a divorced mother abandoning her family. In this book, the creators of the podcast The Lady Vanishes detail the winding investigation into Marion's disappearance, from tentative early police efforts to her dau...