It is often hard to tell, when essays are first published, what lasting impact words will have. This collection is a timely reminder that essays can matter - with a powerhouse collections of words that shifted something in how Australians see themselves, or that opened or accelerated existing national conversations. The collection reads a little like glimpses into Australia's past, with passionately argued essays on the sexism of house design, or the role of the suburb as showing how our sense of ourselves has evolved. All of them are engaging, even if not all seem to hold the test of time (Thea Astley on the Boomers as young folk is a reminder that we were all young once! On the other hand Tim Rowse's afterward moderating his views felt confessional in a human, if unnecessary, way).
The collection has a hefty set of recent contributions - six of the twenty essays were published int he last four years (the only decade not represented here is the naughties, interestingly, possibly a dead conversation for cultural conversation). The impact of some of these essays - Chelsea Watego's Always bet on Black (power) and Michael Mohammed Ahmad's It's shit to be White have had the widely cited, entered immediate conversation impact (and that both deal with racism is reflective of our current national conversations) but it did seem a heavy weighting overall.
But this is a delight to read, and a worthy reminder that what we write about culture matters.