32 results for "Biography"

Robert Manne A Political Memoir: Intellectual Combat in the Cold War and the Culture Wars

Robert Manne
Robert Manne is one of Australia's most profound political analysts. His memoir traces his intellectual roots, revealing how his family background and early years informed the questions he would spend his life trying to answer. It also provides a fascinating portrait of key political controversies, including intellectual combat over Pol Pot, Wilfred Burchett, Quadrant, the Stolen Generations, Manning Clark, the Howard government, the Murdoch press and much more. During the Cold War and the culture wars, Manne clashed with some of the most influential thinkers, writers and polemicists - Noam Chomsky, Les Murray, Leonie Kramer, Tom Keneally, Isi Leibler, Helen "Demidenko" Darville, Peter Craven, Paddy McGuinness, Keith Windschuttle and Andrew Bolt. This memoir recounts with surprising and unknown detail what really happened and why. Often subverting conventional notions of left and right, Manne is an original thinker who has helped shape the nation's discourse for decades. This is the inside story of a life of engagement and reflection, and a book for anyone interested in the shape and meaning of the past nearly fifty years of politics. 'Robert Manne's prose is elegant and reflective, offering the rare perspective of a man unafraid to admit and learn from his mistakes.' -Becca Whitehead, Books+Publishing 'Essential reading for anyone interested in what has happened to politics and ideas in this country since World War II' -Frank Bongiorno, Australian Book Review
Black Incorporated 2024-12-02 498 pages

Moss Cass and the greening of the Australian Labor Party

Cass, Moss,Encel, Vivien,ODonnell, Anthony
In 1972, Dr Moss Cass found himself minister responsible for Australia's first Department of Environment and Conservation in Gough Whitlam's newly elected Labor government. Long-haired, bearded, unapologetically a champion of progressive causes, Cass was to face an uphill battle. Even within his own avowedly reformist party, he fought against the odds to try to save Lake Pedder, Fraser Island and Kakadu. But Cass's legacy extended beyond environmental politics. As the Minister for Media he issued 12 'experimental' radio licences that laid the basis for today's thriving community radio sector. As the inaugural medical director of the Trade Union Clinic, he helped pioneer a new model of community health care. He advocated for the reform of abortion law and the decriminalisation of homosexuality. This political biography offers an insider's account of a tumultuous time in Australian politics. Cass's story provides a compelling pre-history to many of the key issues in progressive politics today: the environment, refugees, homosexual law reform, the media, and health care.It is also a story about the transformation of the Australian Labor Party: its 'greening' both in regard to environmental politics and its accommodation of new movements for social reform.
Australian Scholarly Publishing 2017 316 pages