Finding Menzies
A new generation’s inspiration for foreign affairs, social policy and political thought
edited by Damien Freeman
foreword by Tony Abbott
Paperback, 192 pages, $34.95
ISBN: 9781923224544
A Jeparit Press book. Jeparit Press is an imprint of Connor Court Publishing in conjunction with The Robert Menzies Institute.
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.
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
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