Books published by NewSouth Publishing

In the late 1960s Sydney was one of the most prosperous places on earth and one of the most corrupt. A large proportion of the population was engaged in illegal gambling and other activities that made colourful characters such as Lennie McPherson wealthy and, to many, folk heroes. Sydney Noir revisits this dark yet fascinating chapter of Sydney's history.

In this fully revised fourth edition of A Charter of Rights for Australia, George Williams and Daniel Reynolds show that human rights are not adequately protected in Australia, contrary to what most people think. Using some pressing examples, they demonstrate how the rights of people at the margins of society are violated in often shocking ways.

Wage inequality between men and women seems one of the intractables of our age. Women are told they need to back themselves more, stop marginalising themselves, negotiate better, speak up, support each other, strike a balance between work and home. This searing book argues that insisting that women fix themselves won't fix the system, the system built by men.

At the height of the building boom in the 1970s, a remarkable campaign stopped billions of dollars worth of indiscriminate development that was turning Australian cities into concrete jungles. Enraging employers and politicians but delighting the wider community, the members of the NSW Builders Labourers' Federation took a stand. Green Bans, Red Union documents the Union's story.

After the Japanese invasion of Burma in late 1941, 11-year-old Colin McPhedran was forced to flee his homeland on foot, across the steep Patkoi Mountain Ranges, to safety in India. This autobiography recalls McPhedran's pre-war childhood as part of a large Anglo-Burmese family, the Japanese invasion and his extraordinary trek to freedom.

Leading Australian curator Felicity Fenner profiles activity-based and pop-up contemporary public art projects from Australia and around the globe. Running the City explores art projects that bring together diverse disciplines and cultures - including running, cycling, architecture and guerilla gardening.

In this lively collection, renowned writers including Paul Daley, Mark McKenna, Peter Stanley, Carolyn Holbrook, Mark Dapin, Carmen Lawrence, Frank Bongiorno and Larissa Behrendt explore not only the militarisation of Australian history but the alternative narratives swamped under the khaki wash - Indigenous history, frontier conflict, multiculturalism, the myth of egalitarianism, and economics.

The book is exploratory: What do I believe? What am I unsure about? Is religious belief reasonable? Written by Gerard Windsor, it's entertaining, stimulating and full of anecdote, history, forays into art and literature, and even a bit of gossip. Interlaced with twelve inspirational, edifying, moving cameos of true-life moments of grace, this is Windsor's take on religion.

Home to the majority of Australian airpower for over three decades, the Royal Australian Air Force base at Butterworth was also home to a vibrant Australian community. Kampong Australia explores the complex political genesis of the RAAF presence at Butterworth and shows what everyday life on and around the base was like.

Analyses the ADF's "train, advise, assist" missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville, the Solomon Islands, South Vietnam and Uganda. With contributions from media commentators, politicians, academics, aid workers and military personnel, The Long Road evaluates the successes and failures of Australia's efforts to help its neighbours and partners avoid armed conflict.

Told in his vivid and entertaining style, Louis Nowra writes Woolloomooloo's biography, drink in hand, from the vantage point of the Old Fitzroy Hotel. It's a world of sex, sin, sly grog, sailors, razor gangs, larrikins, workers, artisans, fishermen, activists, drinkers, fashion designers, tradies, and artists. It's also a story of courage, resilience, tolerance, compassion.

170,000 Displaced Persons arrived in Australia between 1947 and 1952 - the first non-Anglo-Celtic mass migrants.Australia's first immigration minister, Arthur Calwell, scoured post-war Europe for refugees, Displaced Persons he characterised as 'Beautiful Balts'. Amid the hierarchies of the White Australia Policy, the tensions of the Cold War and the national need for labour, these people would transform not only Australia's immigration policy, but the country itself. Beautiful Balts tells the extraordinary story of these Displaced Persons. It traces their journey from the chaotic camps of Europe after World War II to a new life in a land of opportunity where prejudice, parochialism, and strident anti-communism were rife. Drawing from archives, oral history interviews and literature generated by the Displaced Persons themselves, Persian investigates who they really were, why Australia wanted them and what they experienced.

In this fully revised third edition, Philip Mendes questions many of the key values and assumptions that determine contemporary social welfare policies, and the factors and forces that shape these policies in Australia. Mendes examines welfare politics in Australia from a broad political perspective, exploring the role played by key socio-economic players and their respective ideologies.

The legend of Kate Leigh, Sydney's famed brothel madam, sly grog seller and drug dealer, has loomed large in every account of Sydney's criminal history from the 1920s to the 1960s. But she has never had a biography of her own. Novelist and historian Leigh Straw teases out the full story of how this wayward Reformatory girl made a fortune in eastern Sydney and became a leading underworld figure.

Award-winning filmmaker and historian Rachel Landers wrestles with the evidence to unravel this complex cold case in forensic detail, exposing corruption, conspiracy theories and political intrigue - and a prime suspect.

Where do thousands of people in wigs, jumpsuits and fake Priscilla eyelashes go each January to swelter in 42-degree heat as they celebrate The King? Parkes, 365 kilometres west of Sydney, for the annual Parkes Elvis Festival. Written by two long-time fans of the festival, Outback Elvis introduces the local characters, the lookalikes, the impersonators and the tribute artists.

No-one in the Australian government or army could have predicted that in the 25 years following the end of the Cold War army personnel would be deployed to Rwanda, Cambodia, Somalia, Bougainville, East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Solomon Islands. In a constructive critique of the modern Australian Army, On Ops examines the transformation that has taken place since 1999.

An honest and deeply personal story of how a privileged white woman deals with the realisation that the children she grew up with were part of the Stolen Generation. A Tear in the Soul is a frank, beautifully written account of Amanda Webster's personal journey towards the realisation that she, like generations of Australians, grew up with a distorted and idealised version of the past.

Now in its sixth year, The Best Australian Science Writing 2016 brings together knowledge and insight from Australia's brightest thinkers as they explore the intricacies of the world around us. This lively collection of essays covers a wide range of subjects, and challenges our persceptions of the world and how we exist within it.