Books by Hugh Mackay

Generous, erudite, optimistic and candid...Hugh Mackay encourages us to find the best in ourselves and in our society in both good and troubled times.

How can you be sure you're doing the right thing? Can some actions be legally right, yet morally wrong? What are the rights and wrongs of leaving a relationship? Are the rules different for sex? Is it always wrong to tell a lie? Why be good?No one pretends that making moral choices is easy. In this updated edition, which includes a new prologue on the moral minefields of power and wealth, Hugh Mackay argues that because morality is all about the way we treat each other, we make our best decisions - at work, among friends, in the neighbourhood, in a marriage or a family - when we imagine how our actions might affect the wellbeing of others. Our moral choices actually help shape the kind of society we live in, for better or worse.At a time when many of us are struggling to navigate an ever more complex world, Right & Wrong offers you the essential tools for making confident moral choices, and for deciding what's right for you and for the people around you.

Ever wondered what 'human nature' really means?This new edition of What Makes Us Tick takes us beneath the often overwhelming surface noise of politics, economics, new technology and social change to explore something that hasn't changed: the ten desires that drive us all and, now in a new prologue, the seven characteristics that define us as a species. From our desire to be taken seriously, to be useful and to be loved, to the desire for more, the desire for control and the desire for something to believe in, these universal human motivations powerfully influence our behaviour towards each other. Hugh Mackay goes to the heart of what it means to be human. This is a book that explains us to ourselves and, in the process, helps us understand each other a little better. It also encourages us to lead more generous, compassionate lives.

Drawing on a rich body of empirical work, this text explores three core themes of information society debates: the transformation of culture through the information revolution; changing patterns of work; and the reconfiguration of time and space.