Finding Menzies: A new generation’s inspiration for foreign affairs, social policy and political thought...

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Damien Freeman

Finding Menzies

A new generation’s inspiration for foreign affairs, social policy and political thought

Damien Freeman

$34.95

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English

01 February 2025

Biography: general; History

Sir Robert Menzies is the behemoth of Australian political history, but does his legacy have any enduring relevance for the challenges that lie ahead?

Finding Menzies exemplifies the wealth of resources that contemporary scholars can mine in the archives of the Menzies era in order to gain a better understanding of the origins of contemporary political challenges and the possibilities for solving them. The collection addresses topics in Australian political history ranging from defence and foreign policy through to the rule of law and social and economic policy, as well as topics in the history of political thought and at the intersection of politics and religion.

Contributors engage with Menzies’s understanding of Australia’s war aims and post-war relations with the UK, USA, and USSR; his approach to changes in families, housing, and education; and his attitude to liberalism, tolerance, aspiration, and Catholicism.

It is the product of research undertaken by members of the Menzies Early Career Network, an initiative of the Robert Menzies Institute, which aims to nurture an appreciation of the enduring legacy of Menzies and his government in the next generation of Australian scholars as they embark on careers in history, law, and public life.

FOREWORD: Tony Abbott

Damien Freeman is a fellow of the Robert Menzies Institute at the University of Melbourne, where he convenes the Menzies Early Career Network, an honorary fellow of Australian Catholic University, and a research fellow of Catholic Schools NSW’s Kathleen Burrow Research Institute. His books include The End of Settlement: why the 2023 referendum failed and Abbott’s Right: the conservative tradition from Menzies to Abbott.

Chapters Include:

Foreword: Tony Abbott
Introduction: Damien Freeman

1. Popular criticism of Robert Menzies’s war aims Aaron Marston-Pattison
2. Remembering and acknowledging the Anglo-Australian relationship of the twentieth century Scarlett Wakelin
3. The enemy of my enemy? Australia and the Sino-Soviet split, 1959-1964 Jesse Seeberg-Gordon
4. Australia and New Zealand: Two sides of the same sea Orlando Throsby
5. The arts’ last advocate: Menzies and the cause of liberal education Jacob Carson
6. Menzies the student; Menzies the statesman Nick Warren
7. Policy settings and housing booms: Lessons from the Menzies era Georgia Lowden
8. Creating the middle-class economy: How inflation targeting and child endowment changed Australia’s trajectory Abby Smith
9. ‘My John Citizen in Australia believes in peace’: Freedom, empire and the ‘ordinary Australian’ Josh Woodward
10. Santamaria and the DLP Samuel Chamberlain
11. Redefining Australian middle-class identity Maya Khurana
12. The political philosophy of aspiration and the Australian dream Priscilla Spalding
13. Overprivileged: Menzies’s struggle with the limits of free speech in an episode of high political drama Patrick Irwin

Bibliography
Contributors

Edited by: Damien Freeman
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 10mm
Weight: 268g
ISBN: 9781923224544
ISBN 10: 1923224549
Publication Date: 01 February 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Damien Freeman (Editor) is a fellow of the Robert Menzies Institute at the University of Melbourne, where he convenes the Menzies Early Career Network, an honorary fellow of Australian Catholic University, and a research fellow of Catholic Schools NSW’s Kathleen Burrow Research Institute. His books include The End of Settlement: why the 2023 referendum failed and Abbott’s Right: the conservative tradition from Menzies to Abbott.