Bøger af Brett Mason

On a moonless night in August 1943, a US torpedo boat commanded by Lt John F Kennedy, on patrol in Solomon Islands, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. Left clinging to wreckage within sight of Japanese encampments, the eleven surviving members of Kennedy's crew eventually struggled ashore on a small uninhabited island. Missing, presumed dead, behind enemy lines, with no food or water, and with several injured, the future looked bleak for the shipwrecked Americans. Fortunately, Australian ' coast watcher' Lt Reg Evans witnessed the immediate aftermath of the collision from his nearby jungle hideaway. Working under the searching eye of the Japanese military, over the next five days Evans and two Solomon Islander scouts - Eroni Kumana and Biuku Gasa - located Kennedy and his crew and ensured their rescue. This story of wartime bravery and survival helped create JFK's legend and paved his way to the White House. It also shone a spotlight on Australia and America's shared wartime experience.

Two Australian scientists played a vital yet largely unknown role in the Allied victory in the Second World War. Almost eight decades later, Wizards of Oz finally tells their story. Brett Mason reveals how childhood friends from Adelaide - physicist Mark Oliphant and medical researcher Howard Florey - initiated the most significant scientific and industrial projects of the Second World War: manufacturing penicillin, developing microwave radar and building the atomic bomb. These innovations gave the Allies the edge and ultimate victory over Germany and Japan. More than just a story of scientific discovery, Wizards of Oz is a remarkable tale of secret missions, international intrigue and triumph against all odds. Mason tells how Oliphant and Florey were also instrumental in convincing a reluctant United States to develop and deploy the three breakthrough inventions in time to change the course of the war. These two Australians not only helped win the war but shaped the peace, with their war-time contributions continuing to influence international politics and the health and wealth of nations. Oliphant and Florey emerge in Wizards of Oz as the two most consequential Australians of the Second World War - perhaps of all time --

Future-proofing Australia is a selection of essays by Australia's great thinkers and doers boldly confronting the future and mapping out a path for our country.