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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Six years after vacating his position as the longest-serving Premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr returned to politics in his dream job: as Foreign Minister of Australia and a senior federal cabinet minister.
'For 18 months he kept a diary documenting a whirl of high-stakes events on the world stage – the election of Australia to the UN Security Council, the war in Syria and meetings with the most powerful people on the planet. And they all unfold against the gripping, uncertain domestic backdrop of Labor Party infighting, plummeting polls and a leadership change from Gillard back to Rudd.
'This compelling diary provides an intimate glimpse into the day-to-day workings of a foreign minister and proves that Carr is not only a master politician and statesman, but a great writer as well.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication:
As always, to H, my co-conspirator.
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Epigraph:
There comes a time when you
realise that everything is a dream,
and only those things preserved in writing
have any possibility of being real.
–James Salter, All That Is (2013)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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“For the Historic Record” : Memoirs, History, and Australian Political Culture
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Politics and History , June vol. 67 no. 2 2021; (p. 312-330)'Genres of written communication do not take place in a vacuum; rather they are fundamentally influenced by historical context and socio-political circumstance. In recent years, the political memoir genre in Australia has moved away from its tradition of personalised narrative towards a more assertive mode of historical representation. Drawing on empirical and oral history research, this article examines recent alterations in the genre as manifest in six political memoirs produced by senior members of the Rudd–Gillard Labor government. I conclude that Australia's embittered and combative political culture has driven changes in the aesthetic and epistemological features of the genre itself. This research demonstrates that the “trust deficit” embedded in contemporary democracies is manifest not only in the daily ephemera of public discourse, but also in long-form modes and genres of political communication.' (Publication abstract)
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Bringing Order to Chaos
2020
single work
essay
— Appears in: Inside Story , June 2020;'What do Labor memoirs reveal about the 2010 leadership change?'
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Australia Is Awash with Political Memoir, but Only Some Will Survive the Flood
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 9 September 2015; -
Review : Bob Carr : Diary of a Foreign Minister
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 17 October no. 5820 2014; (p. 27)
— Review of Diary of a Foreign Minister 2014 single work autobiography diary -
'Tosser' Carr Has Last Laugh in Sales War
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 22 September 2014; (p. 23)
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The True Confessions of a Frequent Flyer
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 26 April 2014; (p. 29) The Sydney Morning Herald , 26-27 April 2014; (p. 31)
— Review of Diary of a Foreign Minister 2014 single work autobiography diary -
Jet Lag, Jokes and Ab Ambition
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 3 May 2014; (p. 22)
— Review of Diary of a Foreign Minister 2014 single work autobiography diary -
[Untitled]
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 17 May 2014; (p. 25)
— Review of Diary of a Foreign Minister 2014 single work autobiography diary -
[Untitled]
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , June no. 101 2014; (p. 56)
— Review of Diary of a Foreign Minister 2014 single work autobiography diary -
'Slow Boring Through Hard Boards' : Acuity and Self-Indulgence From an Ex-Foreign Minister
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 362 2014; (p. 13-15)
— Review of Diary of a Foreign Minister 2014 single work autobiography diary -
Good Onya, Bob, for Telling It Like It Was
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 13 April 2014; (p. 61) -
You're So Vain, You Probably Think This is All About You, Don't You
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 13 April 2014; (p. 61) -
Will Carr's Diary Inspire Tell-All Pollies?
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 15 April 2014; (p. 18) -
Carr Diary Published and Was Damned
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 5 June 2014; (p. 20) -
Strewth!
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 29 July 2014; (p. 9)