Regularly cited in the media a decade after it was first published, Mark Davis Gangland has become a landmark in recent Australian cultural debate. This new, third edition of the book adds a substantial 10,000-word update to the original chapters and brings the book right up to the minute.
Ten years on, Davis arguments still hold, and Gangland remains the last word on the debate about the stranglehold that baby-boomers and their chummy networks of patronage continue to hold over Australian life. But with a twist.
Since the book was written a new gang has completed its ascendancy. Conservatives now dominate the cultural landscape and the 1970s generation of cultural commentators who were the focus of the book find themselves on the outer and on the defensive.
And what about generations X and Y? In his assessment of their fortunes Davis exposes how they are being left out of the picture in Australia's current economic boom, used as guinea pigs at the leading edge of workplace reform, cut out of the housing market, and often heavily indebted by user-pays education.
This tenth anniversary edition of Gangland puts it back into print and back to the forefront of debate.
