Ordinary People's Politics: Australians talk about life, politics and the future of their country

by Judith Brett, Anthony Moran

This unique series of snapshots of Australian political culture takes us from the Depression through the post war boom, the economic changes of the 1980s to the early 2000s and the war on terror. Based on interviews done in the 1950s, the 1980s and the early 2000s, twenty-two ordinary Australians talk about politics and its place in their lives. The portraits are sharply etched to read like well-crafted political short stories.

337 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Judith Brett is the author of Quarterly Essay 19, Relaxed and Comfortable: The Liberal Party’s Australia, Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People and Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard and a regular commentator for The Monthly. She is professor of politics at La Trobe University.

Reviews

[SP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting book, although hard to gauge much meaning from the snippets of these people's lives. They are all very different, and the book covers about 80 years so there are also some profound generational differences. The stories from the poorer people interviewed in the book were the most important for me, although I found 2 of the 3 interviewees from my generation quite sad... They were very disconnected from life and had no real community or even family connections and no interest in politics.

I still like it as a piece of sort-of oral history, but it's a book with a number of discrete stories rather than a story with a number of discrete views.

[Danu Poyner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful book draws highly-detailed 'portraits' of regular Australians and their political (or non-political) lives. Succeeds in striking a balance between sociological interpretation and letting the subjects own words speak for themselves. The result is a tasty selection - large dollops of perspective in a steady series of chewy but digestible portions. Required reading for any curious student of political culture and character.