Manne's political trajectory - from right to left - has been an unusual and intriguing one. In the course of it, he has written definitive accounts of many of the key public controversies of the past thirty years - from the Cold War to the Iraq War, from the stolen generations to the asylum seekers, from Australian party politics to the culture wars. His two Quarterly Essays, In Denial and Sending Them Home, are published here complete, as are controversial discussions of political correctness, pornography and euthanasia as well as gentler thoughts on childhood, the university and the Geelong Football Club. There is also an array of passionate and entertaining essays on subjects ranging from Geoffrey Blainey to Paul Keating, Helen Garner to George Orwell, Pauline Hanson to Noel Pearson.