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The true story of five talented young men in exile in the time of Hitler and Mao Tse-Tung. 'Altogether they knew five wars, three revolutions and - in the case of Ian Milner, accused in the Cold War of being a spy - a slander.' Regarded by one critic as 'the best book published in New Zealand in the last twenty years', this is a fascinating story based on letters, diaries and interviews in several countries. It is the story of a group of Rhodes scholars, five young men - James Bertram, Geoffrey Cox, Dan Davin, Ian Milner, John Mulgan - caught up in the turmoil of their times: Spain, Hitler's Germany, Greece and North Africa, Eastern Europe, China. They left New Zealand in the thirties for 'the dreaming spires' of Oxford. War intervened. Only one returned.
Max Crawford was one of Australia's pre-eminent historians. As both a participant in and observer of many decisive episodes of the era; Europe in the midst of the Depression, America and Russia at the height of World War II, post-war reconstruction and the Cold War in Australia, Crawford was regarded as a radicalandsbquo; and outspoken defender of intellectual autonomy. This biography considers Crawford as an historian and a public intellectual. It relates his experiences as a student at Sydney and Oxford, a struggling teacher during the Depression, as the head of the History School at the University of Melbourne, a diplomat in wartime Russia, and a Cold War victim and accuser. The study of ...
Australian spy Ian Milner was suspected of working for Soviet and Czechoslovak secret services on four continents. He served at the United Nations in New York, and the FBI followed him day and night before eventually declaring he was not a spy. But secret documents from Prague show he was spying all along. Wilfred Burchett claimed to be an independent Australian journalist. He wrote dozens of books, and Prague documents prove that he was a secret member of the Communist Party of Australia. He also worked for Soviet, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese secret services. Drawing upon past secret documents of Australian, Czechoslovak and U.S. secret agencies along with important Soviet records, histo...
Manning Clark was a complex, demanding and brilliant man. Mark McKenna's compelling biography of this giant of Australia's cultural landscape is informed by his reading of Clark's extensive private letters, journals and diaries-many that have never been read before. An Eye for Eternity paints a sweeping portrait of the man who gave Australians the signature account of their own history. It tells of his friendships with Patrick White and Sidney Nolan. It details an urgent and dynamic marriage, ripped apart at times by Clark's constant need for extramarital romantic love. A son who wrote letters to his dead parents. A historian who placed narrative ahead of facts. A doubter who flirted with Ca...
There is a tradition of “participant history” among historians of the Pacific Islands, unafraid to show their hands on issues of public importance and risking controversy to make their voices heard. This book explores the theme of the participant historian by delving into the lives of J.C. Beaglehole, J.W. Davidson, Richard Gilson, Harry Maude and Brij V. Lal. They lived at the interface of scholarship and practical engagement in such capacities as constitutional advisers, defenders of civil liberties, or upholders of the principles of academic freedom. As well as writing history, they “made” history, and their excursions beyond the ivory tower informed their scholarship. Doug Munro’s sympathetic engagement with these five historians is likewise informed by his own long-term involvement with the sub-discipline of Pacific History.
"Valentine Alexa Leeper was born in Melbourne on Valentines Day, 1900, the daughter of Alexander Leeper (18481934), the brilliant but argumentative first Warden of Trinity College. Her long life might seem unremarkable: she lived simply in the family's Victorian suburban home, neither marrying nor travelling overseas, and was regarded by many as an eccentric, at times tiresome, blue-stocking. The hoard of letters Valentine Leeper wrote and received over nearly a century reveals her, however, as a remarkable woman. The letters also provide an intimate view of issues, great and small, of the turbulent twentieth century, through the eyes of a clear-minded observer. Valentine publicly condemned racism and any curtailing of freedom of speech, and extensively supported refugees and the rights of Aborigines and women. Like many women of her time and background, she was an active member of a network seeking social justice, but remained always her own person. At once a staunch traditionalist, and ahead of her time, she was a truly liberated woman"--Provided by publisher.
Analysis of modern Australian history and culture, which reflects on topics such as the accusation that historian Manning Clark was an agent of Soviet influence, and discusses various approaches to understanding Australia's past. Includes bibliography and index. The author's other publications include 'A New Britannia' and 'Gallipoli to Petrov'.