21 May 2013
5:45 PM – 7:30 PM
Organised by the Royal History Society of Victoria
Location:
RHSV Headquarters, Medical Drill Hall, 239 A’Beckett St – Melbourne.
Speaker: Paul Strangio Time: 5.45 pm (Following the RHSV AGM) Cost: RHSV Members free, Non-Members $10.
Compared to its fellow state ALP branches, the Victorian Labor Party has been largely neglected by historians. Undoubtedly, a major factor in deterring interest in the party’s story was its dismal electoral record. In writing the first major narrative history of political Labor in Victoria, Paul Strangio set out to explain the party’s fallow years.
A related objective of his study was to understand how persistent failure shaped the party’s traditions and cultures. He discovered that exile from government did indeed shape Victorian Labor into a unique and intriguing species among the state Labor parties. In this talk Paul will discuss his account of the history of Victorian Labor, as well as the intriguing provenance of his book.
Paul’s book Neither Power Nor Glory: 100 Years of Political Labor in Victoria, 1856–1956 is a winner of the 2012 Victorian Community History Awards in the History Publication Award category.
Paul Strangio is an Associate Professor in Politics at Monash University. He is a specialist in Victorian and Australian political history and has a particular interest in political parties, political leadership and biography. He is also a frequent media commentator on Australian and Victorian politics.
Paul has authored and edited several books, including Keeper of the Faith: A Biography of Jim Cairns (MUP, 2002), The Victorian Premiers, 1856-2006 (Federation Press, 2006), Confusion: The Making of the Australian Two-Party System (MUP, 2009) and Neither Power Nor Glory: 100 Years of Political Labor in Victoria, 1856-1956 (MUP, 2012).