Best Australian & Oceanian Politics Books of 2026

Volt Rush by Henry Sanderson is a captivating read that explores the race to secure the metals and rare earths needed to power our phones, cars, and homes. Sanderson takes readers on a journey to remote mines in the Congo and Chile's Atacama Desert, linking them to giant Chinese battery factories, shadowy commodity traders, secretive billionaires, and a new generation of scientists. Despite the seemingly insuperable geopolitical quandaries with which it deals, the tone of Sanderson's book is one of cautious optimism. Overall, Volt Rush is a remarkably hopeful and useful book that sheds light on the complex interplay of politics, economics, and technology shaping our future.

Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples is an essential volume that explores the intersections of imperialism and research, specifically how imperialism is embedded in knowledge disciplines and traditions. The book argues that decolonizing research methods will help reclaim control over indigenous ways of knowing and being. The third edition features contributions from indigenous scholars, a chapter with twenty-five indigenous projects, and a collection of poetry, making it a unique and valuable resource for those interested in human geography books. Linda Tuhiwai's expertise in Maori development at the University of Waikato, and her other works on decolonizing research, make this book a must-read for anyone interested in this topic.

Hacia una economía moral by Andrés Manuel López Obrador offers a clear understanding of the Mexican president's proposal for a national economy based on the prosperity of the population and the restructuring of institutions and political practices to serve the common good. The book provides an intimate and eloquent dialogue on the specific results of his first year in government. The author's conviction that generosity, empathy, collaboration, freedom, and trust are the keys to a new social pact and development model for Mexico is inspiring. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of Mexico.

The Last Imperialist: Sir Alan Burns's Epic Defense of the British Empire by Bruce Gilley is a thought-provoking work of history that challenges the conventional view of decolonization. Gilley argues that Burns understood the benefits of colonial rule and correctly predicted the chaos that followed its rapid dissolution. The book uses Burns's career to ask important questions about standard accounts of the British Empire's end. Gilley's use of previously unavailable documentation from Burns's family dethrones the revisionist historians and shatters their unbalanced accusations against European colonialism. The Last Imperialist is a compelling and courageous work of revisionism that brings complexity and nuance back into a historiography increasingly ruled by one-dimensional partisan narratives.

Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case against Julian Assange is a meticulously researched and well-documented analysis of the US government's case against the WikiLeaks founder. Written by Kevin Gosztola, an independent journalist who has been covering Assange and the wider war on whistleblowers for over a decade, the book offers a comprehensive perspective on the events leading up to what press freedom advocates have called the trial of the century. The book examines abuses of power by the CIA and FBI, including a spying operation that targeted Assange's family, lawyers, and doctors. Gosztola's work is a crucial guidebook to Assange's upcoming trial and a powerful call to defend press freedom.

The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics by Mae Ngai is an exceptional study of how Chinese migration to goldfields transformed global power and economics, as well as shaped modern conceptions of race. Ngai narrates the story of how thousands of Chinese left their homeland in pursuit of gold and how they formed communities to navigate their new world. By the turn of the twentieth century, the US and the British Empire had excluded Chinese people from immigration and citizenship. This book masterfully links important themes in world history and economics, making it a must-read for anyone interested in immigrant history.

Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures is an anthology of contemporary eco-literature that features a hundred Indigenous writers from Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and the global Pacific diaspora. The book is a beautiful representation of the Pacific's bio-diversity, featuring various genres such as poetry, chant, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and visual texts, all written in multilingual offerings of English, Pacific languages, pidgin, and translation. The book's main themes revolve around nature, climate change, environmental justice, and the Pacific Islanders' lives and cultures. This anthology is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the Pacific Islanders' perspectives on the environment and their struggles to protect it.

Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies: New Zealand and the United States, published by Oxford University Press, is a comparative analysis of the history of two open societies. The author, David Hackett Fischer, explores the similarities and differences between the United States and New Zealand, two countries that share democratic polities, mixed-enterprise economies, and a deep concern for human rights and the rule of law. The book offers insights into the processes of nation-building, immigration, women's rights, and racial wrongs in both countries. Fischer's work on liberty and freedom is expanded with the first-ever published history of fairness. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in comparative history and moral philosophy.

What Really Happened In Wuhan by Sharri Markson is an eye-opening investigation into the origins of Covid-19, the cover-ups, the conspiracies, and the classified research. Markson's access to primary documents and interviews with whistleblower doctors in Wuhan, along with unprecedented access to Washington insiders, reveals the truth about the pandemic. The book dismantles what we thought we knew about when the outbreak hit and exposes China's concealment of the virus. Bravely reported and chillingly laid out, the book sheds light on the stories of the pandemic from the people on the ground. A must-read for anyone interested in the pandemic's origin and handling.

This book, titled "Chinese Migrants and Internationalism: Forgotten Histories, 1917–1945 (Chinese Worlds)", sheds light on the internationalist practices of Chinese migrants and diasporas in the early 20th century. It argues against the stereotype of Chinese migrants as clannish and xenophobic and highlights their efforts to form alliances with non-Chinese migrants and local workers to address shared problems. The author's research, based on sources in a dozen languages, covers Chinese migrant experiences in Russia, Germany, Cuba, Spain, and Australia. This book is a valuable contribution to the fields of Chinese history, labor studies, and ethnic/migration studies.