Book Review

Still Lucky, Rebecca Huntley, 2017. This is a good book. The message is clear – Australians are far more optimistic than we have been led to believe by our governments and the media. This researcher has done the research, travelled the country, talked to loads of people over many years. If you are interested in her reports on her research and comments – this book will give you all that and more.

But – the message is easily taken in once you have read the first chapter and maybe the conclusions. The rest is for the very keen researchers or those who need to read about her evidence.

Good book – yes.

Good – even wonderful research – yes.

Great statements to be made.

But I read the key bits and skimmed the rest; I got the message and took it on board pretty quickly.

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From the publishers – here’s their words:

In the tradition of Donald Horne and Hugh Mackay, Still Lucky is a health check for the nation, and finds that we are more fortunate than we think, and have more in common than we know.

Rebecca Huntley, one of Australiaâ??s most experienced and knowledgeable social researchers, wants to break through all the noise and make you feel better about this country and the people around you. Our politicians are becoming increasingly conservative, both in their policies and their ambitions for the country, but the Australian people â?? almost all of us â?? want to see real social change. We are more generous and more progressive, and more alike, than we think we are â?? and we are better than our day-to-day political discourse would suggest.

Huntley, one of Australiaâ??s most astute and knowledgeable social researchers, has spent years travelling the country, getting to know whatâ??s in our hearts and minds. Here she tackles the biggest social questions facing Australia now: Why do we fear asylum seekers? Why are women still underpaid and overworked? Why do we over-parent? Why do we worry even though we are lucky?

Still Lucky is a broad-ranging, wise and compelling look at who we are now and where we are heading in the future, from someone who knows what Australians are really thinking.