Evatt: A Life

by John Murphy

John Murphy’s Evatt: A life is a biography of Australian parliamentarian and jurist HV Evatt. Remembered as the first foreign minister to argue for an independent Australian policy in the 1940s and for his central role in the formation of the UN, Evatt went on to be the leader of the Labor party in the 1950s, the time of the split that resulted in the party being out of power for a generation. Evatt traces the course of Evatt’s life and places him in the context of a long period of conservatism in Australia. It treats Evatt’s inner, personal life as being just as important as his spectacular, controversial and eventual tragic public career. Murphy looks closely at Evatt’s previously unexamined private life and unravels some of the puzzles that have lead Evatt to be considered erratic, even mad.

‘Bert’ Evatt remains a polarising figure – still considered by many in Labor as the man who ‘split the party’ and by many conservatives as unreliable and dangerous.

Genres: Politics, Biography

464 pages, Hardcover

Published December 1, 2016

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Crt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought I’d better read this because the suburb I live in is named after Herbert Evatt. So, a highly intelligent man, who studied hard at school and uni and was also good at sports. He was a successful barrister in Sydney in the 1920s before being appointed as a high court judge, where he stayed for about a decide before joining the Labour Party and getting elected to parliament. A great Legal mind d but not so great a politician . For me, he lasting legacy was to defeat the Menzies government attempt to change the constitution in the 1951 referendum to ban the communist party, mainly on the grounds that it would give the government the power to define what a communist was. His fear was that this would lead to totalitarianism. Doc Evatt was also president of the UN for a year, and attorney general and foreign minister during the war. He also led the Labour Party after Chifleys death, and I guess his biggest faux pax was declaring that he had written to the Russian foreign minister Molotov to ask whether the defector Petrov was actually a spy! His undoing was that he believed him !

I’m glad I read it

[Dominic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impeccably researched and beautifully typeset, this is a balanced and sensitive retelling of the life of one of the most influential, and controversial, figures in 20th century Australia. Evatt is both an inspiring legal giant, and a tragic Lear who is self-obsessed and paranoid.

Occasionally the book gets bogged down in the minutiae of the ALP/DLP split, and I would have liked a bit more focus on Evatt's time on the High Court - particularly his jurisprudence. But overall, it's well worth reading -- even if you're not interested in history or politics -- as a compelling study of brilliance, ego and vulnerability.