MUP’s new series Little Books on Big Themes pairs leading Australian thinkers and cultural figures with some of the big themes in life: rage, experience, longing and ecstasy. Each author’s 10,000-word take on a chosen theme is presented as an eminently collectable hardback.

With characteristic wit, Don Watson explores indignation through generations of his family and their Old Testament rages. He asks why wounded pride or a sense of injustice unleashes the furies and whether there is ever virtue in it. Dazzling in its humour and eloquence, Watson turns to George W Bush—the figure who most excites his own indignation.