Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | In Denial | 2001 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 2 | Appeasing Jakarta | 2001 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 3 | The Opportunist | 2001 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 4 | Rabbit Syndrome | 2001 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 5 | Beyond Belief | 2002 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 6 | Girt By Sea | 2002 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 7 | Paradise Betrayed | 2002 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 8 | Groundswell | 2002 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 9 | Beautiful Lies | 2003 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 10 | Bad Company | 2003 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 11 | Whitefella Jump Up | 2003 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 12 | Made in England | 2003 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 13 | Sending Them Home | 2004 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 14 | Mission Impossible | 2004 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 15 | Latham’s World | 2004 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 16 | Breach of Trust | 2004 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 17 | Kangaroo Court | 2005 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 18 | The Worried Well | 2005 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 19 | Relaxed and Comfortable | 2005 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 20 | A Time for War | 2005 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 21 | What’s Left? | 2006 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 22 | Voting for Jesus | 2006 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 23 | The History Question | 2006 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 24 | His Master’s Voice | 2007 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 25 | Bipolar Nation | 2007 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 26 | Reaction Time | 2007 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 27 | Exit Right | 2007 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 28 | Love & Money | 2008 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 29 | Last Drinks | 2008 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 30 | American Revolution | 2008 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 31 | Now or Never | 2008 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 32 | Quarry Vision | 2009 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 33 | Radical Hope | 2009 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 34 | Australian Story | 2009 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 35 | What’s Right? | 2010 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 36 | Power Trip | 2010 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 37 | Power Shift | 2010 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 38 | Trivial Pursuit | 2010 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 39 | The Happy Life | 2011 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 40 | Fair Share | 2011 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 41 | Bad News | 2011 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 42 | Man-Made World | 2011 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 43 | Us and Them | 2012 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 44 | After The Future | 2012 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 45 | Not Dead Yet | 2013 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 46 | Unfinished Business | 2013 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 47 | Great Expectations | 2013 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 48 | The Prince | 2013 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 49 | Found in Translation | 2013 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 50 | That Sinking Feeling | 2014 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 51 | Dragon’s Tail | 2014 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 52 | A Rightful Place | 2014 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 53 | Clivosaurus | 2014 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 54 | Dear Life | 2015 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 55 | Blood Year | 2015 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 56 | Faction Man | 2015 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 57 | Political Amnesia | 2015 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 58 | Balancing Act | 2016 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 59 | Stop at Nothing | 2016 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 60 | Firing Line | 2016 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 61 | Enemy Within | 2016 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 62 | The Australian Dream | 2016 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 63 | The White Queen | 2017 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 64 | The Long Goodbye | 2017 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 65 | Moral Panic 101 | 2017 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 66 | Without America | 2017 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 67 | Moment of Truth | 2018 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 68 | Dead Right | 2018 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 69 | Follow the Leader | 2018 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 70 | Net Loss | 2018 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 71 | Australia Fair | 2019 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 72 | The Prosperity Gospel | 2019 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 73 | Men at Work | 2019 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 74 | Red Flag | 2019 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 75 | Cry Me a River | 2020 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 76 | The Coal Curse | 2020 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 77 | The End of Certainty | 2020 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 78 | The High Road | 2020 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 79 | Getting to Zero | 2021 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 80 | Exit Strategy | 2021 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 81 | Top Blokes | 2021 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 82 | The Reckoning | 2021 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 83 | Not Waving, Drowning | 2022 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 84 | Sleepwalk to War | 2022 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 85 | Uncivil Wars | 2022 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 86 | Lone Wolf | 2022 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 87 | The Wires That Bind | 2023 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 88 | Voice of Reason | 2023 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 89 | Lifeboat | 2023 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 90 | The Great Divide | 2023 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 91 | Bad Cop | 2024 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 92 | Highway to Hell | 2024 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 93 | High Noon | 2024 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 94 | Minority Report | 2024 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 95 | Losing It | 2025 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 96 | Hard New World | 2025 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 97 | Woodside vs the Planet | 2025 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 98 | The Good Fight | 2025 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 99 | On Australia and Asia | 2026 | John Birmingham | Buy |
Quarterly Essay is an Australian periodical that has published long-form essays on politics, society, and culture since 2001. Each issue runs between 20,000 and 30,000 words, giving authors room to develop arguments and analysis that would not fit in a standard magazine article or newspaper column.
John Birmingham contributed A Time for War (Quarterly Essay 20, 2005), which examined Australian military engagement and the War on Terror. The essay reflected his long-standing interest in military affairs and geopolitics, the same interests that drive his fiction. Birmingham has also engaged with other Quarterly Essay issues through the publication’s correspondence section.
The list below includes the full Quarterly Essay catalog, not just Birmingham’s contributions. The series features a wide range of Australian writers, journalists, and public intellectuals covering topics from domestic politics and Indigenous affairs to international relations and economics. Each issue stands on its own and can be read independently.