The Menzies Era
The Menzies Era

Author: John Howard

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2014-10-01

Total Pages: 540

ISBN-13: 1743097972

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An assessment of Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, by John Howard, Australia's second-longest serving Prime Minister, this is a significant, unique and fascinating history of the Menzies era - a time that laid the foundations for modern Australia. 'Engaging and revealing ... like a torchlight shone from an unexpected angle' Geoffrey Blainey, Weekend Australian Fresh from the success of his phenomenal bestselling memoir, LAZARUS RISING, which has sold over 100,000 copies, John Howard now turns his attention to one of the most extraordinary periods in Australian history, the Menzies era, canvassing the longest unbroken period of government for one side of politics in Australia's history. The monumental Sir Robert Menzies held power for a total of over 18 years, making him the longest-serving Australian Prime Minister. During his second term as Prime Minister, a term of over sixteen years - by far the longest unbroken tenure in that office - Menzies dominated Australian politics like no one else has ever done before or since, and these years laid the foundations for modern Australia. The Menzies era saw huge economic growth, social change and considerable political turmoil. Covering the impact of the great Labor split of 1955 as well as the recovery of the Labor Party under Whitlam's leadership in the late 1960s and the impact of the Vietnam War on Australian politics, this magisterial book offers a comprehensive assessment of the importance of the Menzies era in Australian life, history and politics. John Howard, only ten when Menzies rose to power, and in young adulthood when the Menzies era came to an end, saw Menzies as an inspiration and a role model. His unique insights and thoughtful analysis into Menzies the man, the politician, and his legacy make this a fascinating, highly significant book. 'This important book' Clive James, Times Literary Supplement

The Forgotten People
The Forgotten People

Author: Robert Menzies

Publisher: Connor Court Publishing Pty Limited

Published: 2018-03

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 9781925501445

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75th Anniversary Edition. First Published in 1943.

Dear Prime Minister
Dear Prime Minister

Author: Martyn Lyons

Publisher: NewSouth Publishing

Published: 2021-10-01

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1742249957

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‘I am sir [sure] you will act as human bean’, wrote one distressed pensioner to Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1953, pleading for assistance. Robert Menzies received 22,000 letters during his record-breaking 1949-1966 second term as Australian Prime Minister. From war veterans, widows and political leaders to school students and homespun philosophers. Ordinary citizens sent their congratulations and grievances and commented on speeches they had heard on radio. They lectured him, quoted Shakespeare and the Bible at him and sent advice on how to eliminate the rabbit problem. In Dear Prime Minister, Menzies’ fabled ‘Forgotten People’ write back. Revealed here for the first time, the letters respond to the royal visit of 1954, Communism, Australia’s British connection and the dire poverty of aged pensioners. For many writers, these were not post-war boom years, but a time of anxiety and conflict, punctuated by fears of war, another Great Depression, or a nuclear Armageddon. Dear Prime Minister is a fascinating insight into the concerns, assumptions and political beliefs of 1950s and 1960s Australians. 'An elegantly wry testament to a lost era of letter-writing, as Menzies’ ‘Forgotten People’ lay bare their assorted fears, gripes, hopes, sycophancy, paranoia, generosity, smugness, ingrained racism, sectarian prejudices, sometimes desperate poverty – and often atrocious spelling.' – Richard White

Dark and Hurrying Days
Dark and Hurrying Days

Author: Robert Menzies

Publisher: National Library Australia

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 0642192855

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Dark and Hurrying Days is the text of a diary kept by Robert Menzies, then Prime Minister of Australia, of his experiences during a wartime trip to England in 1941. It was a grim time when British cities were enduring heavy bombing and German invasion seemed imminent. Menzies' Diary reveals the shifting feelings and fears which these experiences engendered in him, and is of prime importance in capturing the brooding spirit of this grim time.

Menzies at War
Menzies at War

Author: Anne Henderson

Publisher: NewSouth

Published: 2014-07-01

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 1742241794

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In the months following his resignation as PM in late August 1941, Menzies swayed between relief at his release from the burdens of office as PM and despair that his life at the top had come to so little. Many followers of Australian political history, including Liberal party supporters, forget that Robert Menzies had many years in the political wilderness not knowing he would end up being Australia’s longest-serving prime minister. This book focuses on the period between 1941, when Menzies lost the prime-ministership, to 1949, when he regained it. In the interim he travelled around the world, spending an extended time in Britain during World War II, set up the Liberal Party and, the author argues, developed the leadership qualities that made him so successful. Anne Henderson refers to this time as his real political blooding.

Mawson
Mawson

Author: Tim Jarvis

Publisher: Miegunyah Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780522854862

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In Mawson: Life and Death in Antarctica, explorer Tim Jarvis relives Sir Douglas Mawson's extraordinary polar survival journey of 1912-13. Battling against ferocious blizzards and headwinds, Jarvis struggles to overcome extreme isolation, physical deprivation and his own self-doubt. He embarks on his hellish journey using the same equipment, clothing and starvation rations as Mawson had available to him almost a century ago in an attempt to answer some of the questions and controversies surrounding Mawson's tragic expedition in which both of his companions died. This is the story of two journeys, undertaken a century apart, to the limits of human endurance.

Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies

Author: Troy Bramston

Publisher: Scribe Publications

Published: 2019-04-16

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1925693503

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A revelatory biography of Australia’s longest-serving prime minister. Robert Menzies claimed the prime ministership in 1939 and led the nation during the early years of the war, but resigned two years later when he lost the confidence of his party. His political career seemed over, and yet he staged one of the great comebacks to forge a new political party, devise a new governing philosophy, and craft a winning electoral approach that as to make him Australia’s longest-serving prime minister. The lessons Menzies learned — and the way he applied them — made him a model that every Liberal leader since has looked to for inspiration. But debate over Menzies’ life and legacy has never settled. Who was Robert Menzies, what did he stand for, what did he achieve? Troy Bramston has not only researched the official record and published accounts, but has also interviewed members of Menzies’ family, and his former advisers and ministers. He has also been given exclusive access to family letters, as well as to a series of interviews that Menzies gave that have never been revealed before. They are a major historical find, in which Menzies talks about his life, reflects on political events and personalities, offers political lessons, and candidly assesses his successors. Now with a new preface, Robert Menzies is the first biography in 20 years of the Liberal icon — and it contains important contemporary lessons for those who want to understand, and master, the art and science of politics.

From Stray Dog to World War I Hero
From Stray Dog to World War I Hero

Author: Grant Hayter-Menzies

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2015-11

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1612347924

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On the streets of Paris one day in July 1918, an American doughboy, Sgt. Jimmy Donovan, befriended a stray dog that he named Rags. No longer an unwanted street mutt, Rags became the mascot to the entire First Division of the American Expeditionary Force and a friend to the American troops who had crossed the Atlantic to fight. Rags was more than a scruffy face and a wagging tail, however. The little terrier mix was with the division at the crucial battle of Soissons, at the Saint-Mihiel offensive, and finally in the blood-and-mud bath of the Meuse-Argonne, during which he and his guardian were wounded. Despite being surrounded by distraction and danger, Rags learned to carry messages through gunfire, locate broken communications wire for the Signal Corps to repair, and alert soldiers to incoming shells, saving the lives of hundreds of American soldiers. Through it all, he brought inspiration to men with little to hope for, especially in the bitter last days of the war. From Stray Dog to World War I Hero covers Rags's entire life story, from the bomb-filled years of war through his secret journey to the United States that began his second life, one just as filled with drama and heartache. In years of peace, Rags served as a reminder to human survivors of what held men together when pushed past their limits by the horrors of battle. Watch a book trailer.

Australia's Boldest Experiment
Australia's Boldest Experiment

Author: Stuart Macintyre

Publisher: NewSouth

Published: 2015-06-01

Total Pages: 459

ISBN-13: 1742241972

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In this landmark book, Stuart Macintyre explains how a country traumatised by World War I, hammered by the Depression and overstretched by World War II became a prosperous, successful and growing society by the 1950s. An extraordinary group of individuals, notably John Curtin, Ben Chifley, Nugget Coombs, John Dedman and Robert Menzies, re-made the country, planning its reconstruction against a background of wartime sacrifice and austerity. The other part of this triumphant story shows Australia on the world stage, seeking to fashion a new world order that would bring peace and prosperity. This book shows the 1940s to be a pivotal decade in Australia. At the height of his powers, Macintyre reminds us that key components of the society we take for granted – work, welfare, health, education, immigration, housing – are not the result of military endeavour but policy, planning, politics and popular resolve.