The Enigmatic Mr Deakin

by Judith Brett

This insightful and accessible new biography of Alfred Deakin, Australia’s second prime minister, shines fresh light on one of the nation’s most significant figures. It brings out from behind the image of a worthy, bearded father of federation the gifted, passionate and intriguing man whose contributions continue to shape the contours of Australian politics.

The acclaimed political scientist Judith Brett scrutinises both Deakin’s public life and his inner life. Deakin’s private papers reveal a solitary, religious character who found distasteful much of the business of politics, with its unabashed self-interest, double-dealing, and mediocre intellectual levels. And yet politics is where Deakin chose to do his life’s work.

Destined to become a classic of biography, The Enigmatic Mr Deakin is a masterly portrait of a complex man who was instrumental in creating modern Australia.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Australia, Politics, Biography Memoir

490 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2017

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

[Text Publishing · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘A fascinating study of the politics and the times…it brings to life the history and moments of decision, as well as the paths not taken. It has much to offer the thinkers of today.’
Great Escape Books


‘Judith Brett has proven the perfect biographer…’
Jason Steger on National Biography Award win, Sydney Morning Herald

‘A richly rewarding excursion into the private mind and emotions but also into the public life and times of a remarkable individual, full of surprising detail and profound observations about the Australian polity…Among the very best political biographies written in Australia.’
Judges’ Comments, National Biography Award, 2018

‘A magnificent sweep of a book and is highly recommended.’
Newtown Review of Books

‘What makes Brett’s book so rewarding to read is its confident, supple writing style, intelligent inter-posing of political events with Deakin’s inner psychic turmoil and shifts in the wider world; mastery of the facts, and capacity to bring her own balance to understanding a man who was, as she pointed out, enigmatic.’
Australian Financial Review

‘Her timely and important biography of Deakin is especially welcome…A vivid portrait of Deakin and his family as well as a social history of Melbourne at that time.’
Spectator

‘Alfred Deakin, long my favourite Victorian, was truly the full package: polymath, progressive, idealist, spiritualist, man of action. And he had a fantastic beard. All he lacked was a good biography—but not anymore.’
Saturday Paper, Best Books of 2017

‘A biography of immense power that will restore Deakin to his proper place in the national imagination: the mystic politician who gave us Australia.’
David Marr

‘Judith Brett has resurrected a gallant democrat just when democracy seems most in need of redemption. This is a deeply engrossing portrait of a hero for our times, a complex, charismatic man with a unique capacity to build, to lead, to speak and to dream. Masterful, tender and utterly compelling.’
Clare Wright

‘A fresh, revealing and insightful portrait of one of the great figures who shaped Australia.’
Paul Kelly

‘This excellent biography will appeal to general readers, students and anyone interested in historical biography.’
Books + Publishing

‘Brett is a gifted interpreter of politics, past and present, and a sensitive reader of people, individually and en masse. That she has been able to encompass The Enigmatic Mr Deakin in fewer than 500 pages, compared with double that of most “landmark” biographies, attests to a rare kind of writerly judgment: for discerning where the story lies and, crucially, for knowing what can be left out.’
Saturday Paper

‘Truly one of the great political biographies of our time, a delicately nuanced, warm and insight account of—my personal misgiving aside—one of the most noteworthy political figures in Australian history.’
Inside Story

‘The Enigmatic Mr Deakin stands as the culmination of her work on the history, politics and philosophy of Australian liberals, and it is the one biography of Deakin to which we will repeatedly return. Brett’s writing is capable of extraordinary clarity, insight and compassion.’
Mark McKenna, Monthly

‘This is a fine biography—accessible, perceptive, and in the best way, sympathetic. Deakin has found the interpreter he deserves for a modern audience…If our politicians still read books—and sometimes one does wonder—Judith Brett’s new biography should be required reading.’
Australian Book Review

‘A significant contribution to biography and political history that is beautifully written and full of interest.’
Royal Victorian Historical Society

‘Impressive…Brett displays an acute understanding of the intricacies of parliament and the political and policy issues of Deakin’s time…The Enigmatic Mr Deakin has a lively prose style that shows a deep understanding of its perplexing subject. It is a fine book, and especially timely given the depressing state of modern politics.’
Australian

‘Accessible and informative, this style of biography layers facts over questions that draw in readers curious about what makes human beings do the things we do. This is a biography for our times.’
Daily Review

‘Judith Brett has rounded out Alfred Deakin in this fascinating biography that is a delight to read.’
Boffins Books

‘For sympathy and insight, Judith Brett’s The Enigmatic Mr Deakin is a welcome contribution to analysis of Australian politics. A difficult subject, often deliberately elusive, is captured with skill. Through close and compelling reading of Deakin’s private writing, Brett brings to life his political thinking and spiritual wrestling. An important book.’
Glyn Davies, Best Books of 2017, Australian Book Review

‘The Enigmatic Mr Deakin explores our second prime minister’s career with full attention to his intense inner life and family relationships. Her title points to the puzzles, but Brett doesn’t simplify; she ponders, suggests, dramatizes. Closely observed and psychologically persuasive, this is more than a life-and-times; it is a life.’
Brenda Niall, Best Books of 2017, Australian Book Review

‘Judith Brett’s excellent The Enigmatic Mr Deakin introduces this Federation-era giant to a modern audience: a timely reminder of the achievements and failings of a century ago, and perfect summer reading for any Australian politician whose aspirations rise above seat-warming.’
Frank Bongiorno, Best Books of 2017, Australian Book Review

‘Judith Brett achieves something rare in political biography: a synthesis of the public life with the beliefs, doubts, private struggles, and spiritual inquiry that made The Enigmatic Mr Deakin our most intriguing prime minister.’
James Walter, Best Books of 2017, Australian Book Review

‘In this engrossing and quietly profound biography, Judith Brett brings Deakin back into Australia’s contemporary political imagination, so we can better understand how he shaped the country we live in today…In this age of increasingly polarised politics, Brett’s book is at once a warm portrait of a great politician and a sharp provocation to today’s leaders to forge a better way.’
John Daley, CEO Grattan Institute, Prime Minister’s Summer Reading List 2017

‘A woman’s eye on a powerful man has never felt so penetrating, perceptive and, surprisingly, loving.’
Clare Wright, Sydney Morning Herald’s Year in Reading

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Deakin was forty-four when he moved from colonial to federal politics and into the full glare of national history.’

Alfred Deakin (3 August 1856 to 7 October 1919) was Australia’s second prime minister. He was prime minister three times within the first ten years of Australia’s federation (as the second, fifth and seventh prime ministers). He served from 24 September 1903 to 27 April 1904; from 5 July 1905 to 13 November 1908; and from 2 June 1909 to 29 April 1910. The first two times Mr Deakin served as prime minister, it was as leader of the Protectionists. The third time, he became prime minster after his Fusion Party withdrew support from Andrew Fisher’s Labor Party. But who was Alfred Deakin, and what did he stand for?

Ms Brett writes:

‘I wrote this book to bring Deakin back into Australia’s contemporary political imagination, to understand how he shaped the country we live in today, and for the lessons he could teach us about how to handle unstable parliaments.’

Alfred Deakin was born in Melbourne. He studied at Melbourne University, and was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1879, aged twenty-two. During this time, he contributed to a number of reforms and was also involved in developing irrigation in Australia.

During the 1890s, Mr Deakin participated in the conferences established to draft a constitution for the proposed federation of the Australian colonies. Compromises were required, as was campaigning in the colonies: not all colonies were equally in favour of federation. Mr Deakin also fought hard to have the proposed constitution accepted by the Government of the United Kingdom. In 1887, he was offered and declined a knighthood.

While the history of Australia’s federation fascinates some of us, it’s the context Ms Brett provides which makes her book so valuable. And this context becomes even more important once federation has taken place. For example, it’s difficult for many of us to understand (from the viewpoint of being Australian in the twenty-first century) why this bill was considered so important:

‘On 7 August 1901 Edmund Barton introduced the Immigration Restriction Bill to Federal Parliament. The achievement of a White Australia had been one of the motivations for federation.’

It’s also difficult (for me at least) to appreciate Mr Deakin’s interest in non-conventional spirituality. By including quotes from Mr Deakin’s diaries, and writing about the times in which he lived, Ms Brett provides information which gives me a better understanding of how (and perhaps why) this was so important to Mr Deakin.

On one level, it is difficult to understand why such a man was drawn to politics. And there’s no shortage of evidence that Alfred Deakin considered life outside politics (for example as a preacher). But it seems to me, after finishing this biography, that his high ideals and sense of public service were greater motivation.

Ms Brett’s biography has better informed me about both the man and the politician. While some of his ideas seem out of place today, many of the challenges he faced as prime minister are contemporary. He was an effective leader in minority governments and, as well, Ms Brett writes that:

‘Deakin was the first politician to see Australia’s proximity to Asia as an opportunity as well as a threat.’

So, who should read this biography? I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia and the first ten years after federation. I’d also recommend this book to anyone interested in a well-written book about the life and times of one of Australia’s founding fathers.

‘Watt noted that, though he might have had many honours, ‘he had died plain Alfred Deakin’.’

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished: 14.09.2018
Genre: biography
Rating: C
#AWW2018
Conclusion:
It is not easy to condense an entire life into the form of a book
…an interesting book. But did Judith Brett succeed?

Review

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alfred Deakin was certainly enigmatic and fascinating — from being a Spiritualist medium who 'channelled' the spirit of John Bunyan to write a new 'Pilgrim's Progress', to anonymously writing a column about Australian politics for London papers while he himself was Prime Minister. Alfred Deakin was Prime Minister three times, and a great force for Federation. The "revolving-door Prime Ministership", personal attacks, and politicking we see today are certainly not new — the first ever Speaker of the House, after watching hours of long, intense and personal verbal attacks across the floor of Parliament, collapsed crying "Dreadful! Dreadful!" and died a few hours later!

[David Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story and character. Lots of interjections from Deakin's diaries show his spiritualist motivations (I found these a bit long winded). A bit kooky, and pretty racist with the times; he managed to federate the wild south. Hello Australia.

[Kate]

Yes, a fascinating man about whom I knew little. The glimpses into his privileged mid-late 19th century life in Melbourne were intriguing. However, I got bogged down in the politics of the time - and couldn't stay the distance. When I find myself flipping and scanning, I know I haven't been as engaged with the flow of the writing as I like to be. I'll get back to it but, for now, I'm moving on from the engimatic Mr Deakin.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my experience, Australians have very short memories as a young people and struggle to look earlier than Whitman, Menzies or at best Curtin for national heroes or leaders.

We have a sore need for Australian heroes of the past that we can look at with awe and appreciation, despite any political leanings, that aren't just lawless criminals such as Ned Kelly.

Alfred Deakin stands up as one of these treat Australian leaders. His example of a hard-working, articulate and honest character could inspire us all. His work was fascinating from the constitutional law foundations, his federal nation-building effort, and his commitment to his core principles.

Deakin would also be proud we have moved on from our colonial identity enough to begin considering an Australian Republic in the near future. He'd have many suggestions in articulating arguments for the transformation, and avid supporters would do well to recognise the difficult task for what it is.

Despite the modern disappointment of the Liberal party, many Australians can look to what it's core represents when it is not being poisoned by conservative characters such as Howard or Abbot.
Modern progressive liberals would do well to return to it's classical definition and familiarise themselves with Deakins example, for the good of the nation as Deakin would've described it.

[Harinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what a fascinating person Deakin was - Australia's second Prime Minister, one of the architects of Australia's constitution, a powerful orator with huge charisma, a proponent of a White Australia, fascinated by spiritualism, a journalist (in fact he worked for David Syme of The Age), a progressive and a protectionist. What a mix of contradictions! It's no wonder Judith Brett calls him "enigmatic" . And how well written this book is. Judith Brett brings Deakin to life - it's a very contemporary biography; she weaves together Deakin the man with Deakin the politician very smoothly.

If you are an Australian politics nut, like me, the one take away you may have is that the political culture of our Federal Parliament is not very different now to what it was then. In fact, at one point, Brett goes so far as to say (at page 389): Those who think there has been a deplorable deterioration of parliamentary behaviour since some more courteous past should read the record of the debate in the early hours o Friday, 23 July 1909, the climax of weeks of disgraceful disorder and unrestrained invective. This, of course, is happening just as Deakin swears into power the seventh federal Ministry in eight years, on his THIRD stint as PM. Some things perhaps haven't changed that much!

[Ernest · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a pity that the legacy of Australia’s second Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin, remains more known to historians and political figures than to the public at large. This is a pity as his role in the newly formed nation of Australia was as critical as he was, as the title points out, enigmatic. A leader who successfully led a young democracy but who was also a spiritualist (and arguably mystic). A politician who achieved much at home yet had to be always cognisant of the strong ties to the United Kingdom and the Crown.

As much as this book focussed (rightly) on Deakin the man, it also provided to be a social history of Melbourne at the time, something which I did not know much about. I admit to being particularly interested in the events of Federation and of the newly formed High Court of Australia, but there was still enough to keep me interested throughout. This is a very worthwhile biography of one of the important figures in Australian (political) history.

[David Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating, well written and well research piece of biography - and the author had it right; her subject was certainly enigmatic. But he emerged as eminently unlikeable. Brett tried to explain him as a man of his times but that facile excuse fails on so many levels when applied to a so called leader.

The White Australia Policy is sufficient to damn any would be politician, regardless of party and support. And his weird flirtations with mysticism, mediums and spiritualism reveal a very suggestible personality.

However, having personally watched a near relative decline into dementia, I found that Brett was able to maintain a modicum of sympathy for her subject in the most demanding circumstances.

As history I could have given the book 5 stars, but the subject was worth a discount,

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for anyone interested in Australian history. It puts Deakin front and centre as the major prime mover in achieving a union between the states that resulted in the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia and he did it by leading minority Governments, which is no mean achievement. It is uncanny to read that issues that create problems between the Commonwealth and States in the early 20th century are still causing friction today. As well as the political aspect, I also found the account of the day to day lives of the Deakins and their friends was fascinating and a real insight into the world of my grandparents.

[Dominic · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling and fresh look at the life of Alfred Deakin and his complex legacy.

I particularly enjoyed Judith Brett's focus on Deakin's inner life - his eccentricities, spiritualism, internal struggles and his battle with dementia. While focusing on this, the book is also set against a backdrop of a polity in upheaval, as Australia moved from a parochial set of colonies to a national and cosmopolitan project, and the mantle of progressivism passed from the Liberals to Labor.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A worthwhile read though hard going due to length versus detail about a so/so person. Well researched. The most fascinating aspect of this story is of the early days of federation, the overt cruel racism that was accepted as natural and correct, and the tentative nature of party formation. Deakin wanted to be a centrist and tried to please all sides of politics. He seems to have died prematurely of vascular dementia.

[Anne Platts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and researched. Provides excellent perspective of the political environment, tensions between the states and with Britain. Barton was a bit odd by modern criteria with his spiritual interests but that was a thing then. The insights from his diaries interested me because at times he just didn’t get others perspectives.

[Jennifer Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

The biography is detailed and loving and sets out the process where Australia became a federation through the life of the man who was a key player. interesting to see the origins of the political parties and the language of the 'sides' of Labour and Conservative that was embedded then and endures today

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent, well-written, fleshed-out biography. No wonder it won the National Biography Award this year.
See my complete review at
https://residentjudge.com/2018/10/29/...

[John Kidman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great biography about a wonderful character.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully written, this is a richly-rewarding biography of a fascinating man who was Prime Minister of Australia three times.

[Daniel Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific biography that did a great job of drawing out the inner, personal and family aspects of Deakin's life, rather than only the public aspects. An intriguing subject is brought to life.

[Susanne Newton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic political biography.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book to start off my Australian Prime Minister biography project. I really enjoyed learning all about the life and work of this man, who was the second prime minister of this country.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding biography of an important Australian politician. Brett explores his inner as well as his outer life to come up with a fascinating examination of a very unusual and interesting man

[Josemack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding, well researched biography of one of Australia's great Prime Minister's.

[Leon Lyell · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was no surprise that this year's National Biography Award went to Judith Brett for The Enigmatic Mr Deakin.

Earlier this year I read the book and thoroughly enjoyed it - it is an easy but thoroughly educating read. I believe I understand Deakin better as a result. Last year I read Menzies Forgotten People and found the same thing, though in that case, it was also helpful in understanding some of my parents' attitudes in the 60s. Mum liked Menzies because she credited him with getting WAAAF's better pay during WWII. Dad went along with that for a while but eventually went 'back' to voting Labor.