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Joshua Black Joshua Black i(19132436 works by)
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 A Few Good Men? Moderate Reflections from a Martyr, an Insider and a Cigar Smoker: Joshua Black Review of Malcolm Turnbull, A Bigger Picture: With New Foreword; Christopher Pyne, The Insider: The Scoops, the Scandals and the Serious Business within the Canberra Bubble; Joe Hockey with Leo Shanahan, Diplomatic: A Washington Memoir Joshua Black , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , no. 8 2024;
— Review of A Bigger Picture : An Autobiography Malcolm Turnbull , 2020 single work autobiography ; Diplomatic Joe Hockey , Leo Shanahan , 2022 single work autobiography
1 Fischer's Life : From Boree Creek to Bhutan Joshua Black , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 459 2023; (p. 44-45)
— Review of I Am Tim Life : Politics and Beyond Peter Rees , 2023 single work biography 'Journalist Peter Rees’s biography of Tim Fischer was originally published by Allen & Unwin in 2001 with the title The Boy from Boree Creek. Reviewing the volume in this magazine, fellow journalist Shaun Carney had many kind words for Fischer, but said that the book was ‘either a lesson in the wonders of our democracy or a cautionary tale demonstrating the mediocrity of our public figures’ (ABR, June 2001). The subject was a ‘decent, determined, and hardworking person’, Carney wrote, but one who left the National Party in ‘a seemingly permanent existential crisis’.' 

(Introduction)          

1 Australia’s Cultural Institutions Are Especially Vulnerable to Efficiency Dividends: Looking Back at 35 Years of Cuts Frank Bongiorno , Joshua Black , 2023 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 29 March 2023;

'In January the Albanese government launched a new arts policy, Revive. Among its measures was a commitment to exempt Australia’s seven national performing arts training organisations from the efficiency dividend.'  (Introduction)
1 Review of Dear Prime Minister: Letters to Robert Menzies 1949–1966 Joshua Black , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 46 no. 4 2022; (p. 543-545)
— Review of Dear Prime Minister : Letters to Robert Menzies, 1949-1966 Martyn Lyons , 2021 selected work correspondence

'In Dear Prime Minister: Letters to Robert Menzies 1949–1966, Martyn Lyons brings his considerable expertise on the history of writing, print and publishing to bear on an expansive body of letters written to Prime Minister Robert Menzies in the 1950s and 1960s. These letters, penned chiefly by older white men located in eastern Australia or in London, offer a powerful window into the “heart of Australia’s Liberal-voting middle-class”, replete with its imperial loyalties, racial anxieties, and anti-Communist fervour (223).' (Introduction)
1 “For the Historic Record” : Memoirs, History, and Australian Political Culture Joshua Black , 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)
1 ‘A Historian’s Diary’ : Autobiography, Life Writing and Neal Blewett’s A Cabinet Diary Revisited Joshua Black , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , August no. 5 2021; (p. 49-68) '‘Are you, in fact, a historian?’ I have been confronted with that question more than once with respect to studies of political biography and memoir. Experts in fields ranging from English literature and memory studies to cultural studies have suggested to me, almost casually, that a sophisticated analysis of the political memoir or diary can only take place within the framework of autobiographical or memory theory. One cultural studies specialist proposed that these texts belonged within the remit of New Historicism, a branch of literary analysis that assumes that ‘literary texts can in fact tell us something about the world outside of the text’. In another instance, a conference attendee mused that this kind of research could not constitute the work of a historian, but was instead a facet of the broader field of life writing. The relationship between history and biography—including political biography— remains complex and contested, with the former both shunning and occasionally embracing the latter. Studies of the political memoir and diary genres are, I would suggest, even more fraught with intellectual uncertainty.' (Introduction)
1 Preface Joshua Black , Stephen Wilks , 2021 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , August no. 5 2021; (p. v-ix) 'The relative decline of political history as a sub-discipline of history has not been matched by any evident decline in political biography. Quite the opposite, in fact, particularly among general readers. Perhaps this is due to its capacity for drama and for the high degree of human agency in political events. Yet political biography has long occupied an uneasy position on the spectrum of academic genres of writing. Gone are the days when all of human history was considered simply a story of great men and their deeds. Importantly, we no longer consider the ‘political’ as expressly limited to the realm of mass parties and national legislatures; as Michelle Arrow has comprehensively demonstrated, a popular catchphrase of 1970s Australia— ‘the personal is political’—ran directly counter to the notion of a neat and separable division between public and private selves.' (Introduction)
1 ‘Think Global, Act Local’ : Cathy McGowan’s Colourful Political Memoir Joshua Black , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January–February no. 428 2021; (p. 37-38)
— Review of Cathy Goes to Canberra : Doing Politics Differently Cathy McGowan , 2020 single work autobiography
1 Bringing Order to Chaos Joshua Black , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Inside Story , June 2020;

'What do Labor memoirs reveal about the 2010 leadership change?'
1 y separately published work icon Joshua Black on Susan Ryan, a Pioneering Politician Joshua Black (presenter), 2020 23439740 2020 single work podcast

'In today's episode, Joshua Black reads his tribute to former Labor senator Susan Ryan, featured in our November issue. Ryan was a historic figure in Australian politics: she was the first woman from the ALP to serve in cabinet, and cemented her legacy with the Sex Discrimination Act (1984) – which prohibited sexual discrimination in the workplace. Here, Black recounts his interview with the pioneering politician only weeks before her death on 27 September 2020.' (Production summary)

1 After the Waves : A Tribute to a Pioneering Labor Feminist Joshua Black , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 426 2020; (p. 50-51)

'Susan Ryan was a formidable storyteller. Her stories communicated her values and her world view, her commitment to the pursuit of a more egalitarian society. Hers was a powerful form of communication, capable of questioning and challenging the inadequacies of the masculinist, class-exclusive ‘fair go’ of postwar Australian society.' (Introduction)
1 Secrets and Scandals : Where Malcolm Turnbull’s Memoir Fits in the Rich History of Prime Ministerial Books Joshua Black , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 22 April 2020;

'Landing in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, it may seem strange former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s memoir has generated so much political controversy.'  (Introduction)
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