The first volume in a major new biography on Curtin. His struggle for power against Joe Lyons and Bob Menzies, his dramatic use of it when he took office in October 1941, and his determination to be heard in Washington and London as Japan advanced, is a political epic unmatched in Australian experience. Using much new material this vivid, landmark biography places Curtin as a man of his times, puzzling through the immense changes in Australia and its region released by the mighty shock of the Pacific War.
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This tremendous counterpoint to John Howard's The Menzies Era is volume one of a major new biography of arguably our greatest - and most underrated - Prime Ministers, who shaped modern Australia.
Curtin was Menzies' great rival, taking over from him as Prime Minister at the start of the war with arguably a greater political legacy. Curtin - who died in office - is one of our more intriguing Prime Ministers. A slightly timid socialist boozer with a wall-eye - from WA to boot - he was the utter opposite of Menzies. Yet this quiet man made our nation into modern Australia.
We think of Australia as being made in WW1, at Gallipoli, but in this landmark work of history, John Edwards shows that the Depression and WW2 were the central events in the creation of our nation. The Depression (covered in this book) taught Curtin and the nation how cruelly Britain's bankers could treat its colonies, and how great the consequent suffering. Inspired, we became the world's greatest social democratic country. WW2 (covered in volume 2) taught us that we couldn't rely on Britain for militarily support either, but that America might be our new best friend.
This is a major achievement, replete with tremendous scholarship and great detail, worthy of its two volumes. These two books will be the definitive word on the subject.
