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Political Lives is an intimate history of image-making and image-breaking in national politics. What was the story behind Bob Hawke’s famed biography? Why does Paul Keating think biographies of serving politicians are ‘like Polaroids of a busy life’ while John Howard considers them a big mistake? Where is the ‘missing’ Menzies biography? Why are our early prime ministers largely absent from historical memory? Chris Wallace writes Australian political history anew through this account of prime ministers, their biographies and their biographers. Lively and astute, the book takes us into their motivations and relationships, some well-known and some hidden, and in doing so shows us Aus...
Bob Hawke was a popular and effective Prime Minister whose economic and social reforms are acknowledged to have shaped modern Australia. The book offers a timely look at the legacy of the Hawke era (1983-1991) by considering both the achievements of his ministry, and what remains as unfinished business. The Hawke Legacy includes interviews with Bob Hawke, with his former speechwriter Graeme Freudenberg and with former Senator Rosemary Crowley, contributions from two former members of the Hawke Government, and scholarly accounts from historical, political, economic, educational and Indigenous perspectives.
The man can't help it. Self-parody, sending up other people's expectations, a love of the absurd... Gough's still going strong. To mark another birthday (and in response to popular demand) we've brought together Life With Gough and the best of Whitlam to Winston with some great newly minted Gough stories to present a bumper edition of The (almost) Complete Gough. So, once again, here's a larger-than-life Australian, infuriatingly high-falutin' and bizarrely prurient, inflating himself above politics, enjoying himself hugely at the expense of the mean-spirited, the pompous, the ingratiating, the serious and the dull. 'Here is an agreeable and welcome mix of irreverence, wit and absurdity. Here is captured some of the moods and interests that had tenancy in the Whitlam mind - the imperious, the classical, the historical, the rompish, the waggish and the outrageously provocative.' - James Killen 'Anyone who has ever struggled to suppress mirth during a church service understands the pleasure to be found in sharing Barry Cohen's witty, irreverent but affectionate anecdotes. Don't tell Gough.' - The Hon. Kim Beazley
The world and its people are facing serious local and global challenges. Climate change, economic instability, limits to free speech, threats to independent media reporting, and increasing social inequality all signal the breakdown of democratic systems across the world. Our political institutions and leaders are failing us with increasingly conservative policies that favour big business. Far-right political movements gain ascendency and move whole nations towards fascism while American hostility to China threatens global security and economic prosperity. Yet we learn and grow most when we are challenged by difference and adversity: when we are out of our comfort zones. Such experiences offe...
This moment was not his alone, nor could it ever have come about without himaGough Whitlam turned to Graham Freudenberg, touched him lightly on the shoulder, saying, 'It's been a long road, Comrade, but we're there', and walked out to meet the spotlight... Acclaimed biographer Jenny Hocking's Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History is the first contemporary and definitive biographical study of the former Labor Prime Minister. From his childhood in the fledging city of Canberra to his first appearance as Prime Minister (playing Neville Chamberlain), to his extensive war service in the Pacific and marriage to Margaret, the champion swimmer and daughter of Justice Wilfred Dovey, the biography draws ...
No other writer has journeyed further into the soul of Australia and returned to tell the tale Watsonia collects the fruits of a writing life. It covers everything from Australian bush humour to America gone berserk; from Don Bradman to Oscar Wilde; from Animal Farm to the Australian parliament. Wherever Watson turns his incisive gaze, the results are as illuminating as they are enjoyable. Artfully arranged, Watsonia showcases the many sides of Don Watson: historian, speechwriter, commentator, humourist, nature writer and biographer. It also features several previously unpublished lectures and a wide-ranging introduction by the author. This comprehensive anthology – replete with wit, wisdom and diverse pleasures – is essential reading.
PETER GAY The syllabus of errors rehearsing the offenses of psychohistory looks devastating and seems irrefutable: crimes against the English language, crimes against sdentific procedures, crimes against common sense itself. These objects are real enough, but their contours-and their gravity mysteriously change with the perspective of the critic. From the outside, psychohistorians are to academic history what psychoanalysts are to academic psychology: a monolithic band of fanatics, making the same errors, committing the same offenses, aH in the same way. But seen close up, psychohistorians (just like psychoanalysts) turn out to be a highly differentiated, even a cheerfuHy contentious, lot. D...
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