John Curtin's War: The Coming Of War In The Pacific And Reinventing Australia

Author: John Edwards

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $49.99 AUD
  • : 9780670073474
  • : Penguin Random House
  • : Viking
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  • : 0.898
  • : November 2017
  • : 153mm X 234mm
  • : Australia
  • : 49.99
  • : November 2017
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  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : John Edwards
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  • : Hardback
  • : 1
  • :
  • : English
  • : 994.042092
  • :
  • : 560
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Barcode 9780670073474
9780670073474

Description

John Curtin became Australia's Prime Minister eight weeks before Japan launched war in the Pacific.Curtin's 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. As Japan sank much of the Allied navy, advanced on the great British naval base at Singapore, and seized Australian territories in New Guinea, Curtin remade Australia. Using much new material John Edwards' 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. It shows Curtin not as a hero and certainly not as a villain but as the pivotal figure making his uncertain way between what Australia was, and what it would become. It locates the turning point in Australian history not at Gallipoli or the Western Front or even Federation but in the Pacific War and in Curtin's Prime Ministership.This two volume work is a major contribution to Australian biography, and to how we understand our history. In this first part, Edwards takes Curtin's story from the late nineteenth century socialist ferment in Melbourne through to his appointment as prime minister and a Japanese onslaught so complete and successful that within a few months of launching it military leaders in Tokyo debated between the options of invading Australia, or sealing it off from Allied help.

Awards

2018 PM’s Literary Award, Australian History

Author description

John Edwards is a member of the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia and Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute. He is also an adjunct professor at both the University of Sydney School of Business and the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin University. For many years Dr Edwards was the Chief Economist for HSBC Bank in Australia and New Zealand. He was formerly senior economic adviser for Treasurer and then Prime Minister Paul Keating. His account of the former Prime Minister, Keating- The inside story, published by Penguin, was a bestseller.