AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF LABOUR HISTORY (MELBOURNE BRANCH)
In June 1977 Donald Horne came into my office – we were on the same corridor – quite early in the morning. He was clutching his copy of Historical Studies. I was pleased as I thought he was about to congratulate me on my first article in Australia’s premier history journal and I was quite proud of my achievement, too. … Continue readingMichael McKernan on Ryan Cropp’s Donald Horne Biography
The recent publication of a book of essays honouring the life of legendary New Zealand peace researcher and activist Owen Wilkes is a must read for historians of social movements, those who were active in the anti-nuclear and peace movements of the seventies and eighties, as well as those growing numbers who today carry on the resistance to escalating militarism. … Continue readingPeacemonger, Owen Wilkes: International Peace Researcher
Chris Bowen, the former Treasurer, now Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy, is an avid reader, and curious about the motivation, thinking, and conflicts that rule the hearts and minds of political folk. His latest book tributes six, largely forgotten, Australian Labor men and women, never household names. In doing so, Bowen says that many books: “…tend to focus on the big names or the big dramatic moments: the election wins, the reforms, the splits, the challenges.” But there is more to the Labor story: there are many thousands of personalities who make up the movement. … Continue readingLabouring People
These were better days. Definitely: perhaps so much better because we were young back then. And those who were there naturally see them through that rosy-golden glow. But more likely better because it was us – the young ones ourselves – who had made them better. That is what is often missed: we were actually the vectors of historical advance. We took hold of the times and wrestled them to our novel requirements. We rode them with exhilaration for a while to the forefront of surging change. … Continue readingA Book of Doors
Sean Scalmer, Democratic Adventurer: Graham Berry and the Making of Australian Politics (Clayton: Monash University Publishing, 2020), 349. pp. $39.95 Paper. (Review) Carolyn Rasmussen In 1969 I chose
By Rowan Cahill What follows is in part a review, but also a commentary, and it benefits from the perspective of an insider. As Terry Irving notes in his Acknowledgements
By L W Maher Jacqueline Riding, The Story of the Manchester Massacre: Peterloo Foreword by Mike Leigh (An Apollo Book – Head of Zeus, 2018) On 16 August 1819, a very large
By Rowan Cahill An overview of the work of Iain McIntyre, and a review of his anthology, On the Fly! Hobo Literature and Songs, 1879-1941. Melbourne-based left activist Iain McIntyre
Book Review by Janet McCalman Sally McManus, On Fairness (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2019). 9780522874853 (pbk) 9780522874860 (ebook) 100 pp. This is a little book not only of big ideas but
By Peter Love Book Review of Christos Efstathiou, E.P.Thompson: A Twentieth-Century Romantic (London: Merlin Press, 2015). pp. x + 248. £25 HB. This book began life as a doctoral thesis at