AustLit

'Sean Scalmer's biography of Graham Berry (1822–1904) is “an act of historical recovery”, reclaiming Berry — Premier of Victoria in 1875, 1877–1880, and 1880–1881 — as “the most important and influential reformer of a dauntless reforming age”. Scalmer's narrative captures the compressed, volatile dynamics of Victorian colonial politics as Berry, judged “an extreme liberal” on his first election to the Legislative Assembly in 1861, became the most effective advocate for the protectionist principles which would long influence Australian policy and political debate. Applying the fine-grained attention to the “textures” of political activism that characterises his work, Scalmer revives our appreciation of the “political experiment” of colonial Victoria, not least as a source of inspiration “for our own beleaguered polity”.'  (Introduction)

'Comrades!: Lives of Australian Communists is a collection of one hundred short biographies of members of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) from its founding in 1920 to its dissolution in 1991. Funded by the SEARCH Foundation, the body established to manage the CPA's assets after the party dissolved, this book was the most significant of several Foundation projects marking the centenary of the party's founding. The authors of the biographies are established historians and writers, higher degree students, former CPA members and their children, partners, and associates.'  (Production summary)

'Martyn Lyons presents an insightful contribution to the social history of Menzies’ era, and the motivations and language of people “writing up” to their prime minister. It is beautifully written, transporting you back to the desk of Prime Minister Menzies, through his letters from ordinary Australians.'  (Introduction)

'Anti-censorship, rather like anti-hanging, is one of those causes of the 1960s and early 1970s that has come to occupy an uncertain place in the collective memory of that time. Rather like the movement against capital punishment, it has suffered for many of its greatest triumphs being the work of liberals rather than revolutionaries. Each, however, was at work in Australia and in this excellent book, Patrick Mullins finds a place for both.' (Introduction)

'The intriguing title of A Book of Doors gives nothing of the contents away. Anne Richards’ memoir is situated during the turbulent historical and political events of the anti-Vietnam War protests, the anti-apartheid campaigns against the visiting South African Springboks Rugby team, and the beginning of the Black Rights movement in Australia. It takes place in Queensland, then a police state ruled (rather than governed) by Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, where police violence against protestors was legendary.'  (Introduction)