Australia's Boldest Experiment

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.