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Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin: The Making of the Modern Labor Party
Before becoming the prime ministers who led Australia in moments of extraordinary crisis and transformation, John Curtin and James Scullin were two young working-class men who dreamt of changing their country for the better. This is the story of their intertwined early lives as both men became labour movement intellectuals and powerbrokers at the beginning of the twentieth century. It reveals the underappreciated role each man played in the events that defined the modern Australian Labor its first experience of national government, the turmoil of war, the great conscription clash and party split of 1916, and the heated debates over the party's socialist objective.
Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin portrays two young men struggling to establish their identities and find their place in the world. It tells of their great friendships, loves and passions, and reminds us that these were real men, with real weaknesses. It explains how their early political careers set the scene for their later prime ministerships as they honed the techniques of power that led them to the summit of Australian politics. It is a fascinating tale of two young men striving to better the world they inherited, a story of optimism and hope with enduring relevance for today's troubled politics.
Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin portrays two young men struggling to establish their identities and find their place in the world. It tells of their great friendships, loves and passions, and reminds us that these were real men, with real weaknesses. It explains how their early political careers set the scene for their later prime ministerships as they honed the techniques of power that led them to the summit of Australian politics. It is a fascinating tale of two young men striving to better the world they inherited, a story of optimism and hope with enduring relevance for today's troubled politics.
246 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 2, 2020
About the author
Liam Byrne
3 books1 followerLiam Byrne is the Australian Council of Trade Unions' resident historian. His first book, Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin, traces the intellectual debate within the early Labor Party through a biography of the two former prime ministers. He has also written for various publications, including The Guardian, The Age, Kill Your Darlings, and Overland.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 24, 2020
Not just informative but inspirational also. Should be required reading for all members of the ALP, especially its federal representatives.
April 18, 2021
A sympathetic "life and times" of the formative years of these two later Labor Prime Ministers. Presumably their later careers are well covered in other works. The picture of Victorian politics and society in the late 19th and early 20th century rings true, and the account of the various threads of labour and radical politics that came together is probably of enduring importance to understanding where the Australian Labor Party is at in its current malaise. Perhaps the title could as well have been "Becoming the ALP". A well written account, enjoyable to read, in any case.
Both were of relatively humble working-class origins, and pursued somewhat parallel courses into politics, Scullin on the right of the party (led by the Australian Workers Union) and Curtin on the left, exemplified by the Victorian Socialist Party of which he was one prominent representative. The relative fortunes of these two factions can be seen in the relative fortunes in their careers, with Scullin finding regular union organising and newspaper editing jobs before being selected for a series of (ultimately successful) electoral candidacies. Curtin ended up organising a relatively small union (timber workers) before heading to West Australia to edit a newspaper there.
The book more or less culminates with the adoption of the Socialisation Objective by the ALP in 1921, and it is clear that despite lip service to the goal of socialism even from the AWU (and Scullin), the result was a victory for the right as the Objective was kept a vague aspirational goal, reflecting the left's (including Curtin) relative impotence in the affairs of the party.
The progression of Curtin from fiery VSP radical to wartime PM, managing the affairs of Australia's sub-imperialist designs on the Pacific, is beyond the scope of the book, but hinted at in his views on race. In common with much of the socialist left in the imperial nations of this era, Curtin (and Scullin) remained subservient to racist views of white superiority. Even while Curtin could write important and radical critiques of the drive toward imperialist war, and did not blame the rising Japanese power for wanting to enjoy the fruits of Empire like the British, he seemed to hope for an ascendant (white) USA to become the dominant influence - at least as a pragmatic outcome if not his ideal of socialist revolution.
The 1921 debate over the Socialisation Objective may not be the definitive point that made Labor into a vehicle for managing Australian capitalism instead of overcoming it - Vere Gordon Childe's 1923 "How Labor Governs" recounts a longer history of accommodation, and not just in Victoria. Nevertheless it is an important snapshot of the long decline to irrelevance of left wing views within the ALP, as is this book.
Both were of relatively humble working-class origins, and pursued somewhat parallel courses into politics, Scullin on the right of the party (led by the Australian Workers Union) and Curtin on the left, exemplified by the Victorian Socialist Party of which he was one prominent representative. The relative fortunes of these two factions can be seen in the relative fortunes in their careers, with Scullin finding regular union organising and newspaper editing jobs before being selected for a series of (ultimately successful) electoral candidacies. Curtin ended up organising a relatively small union (timber workers) before heading to West Australia to edit a newspaper there.
The book more or less culminates with the adoption of the Socialisation Objective by the ALP in 1921, and it is clear that despite lip service to the goal of socialism even from the AWU (and Scullin), the result was a victory for the right as the Objective was kept a vague aspirational goal, reflecting the left's (including Curtin) relative impotence in the affairs of the party.
The progression of Curtin from fiery VSP radical to wartime PM, managing the affairs of Australia's sub-imperialist designs on the Pacific, is beyond the scope of the book, but hinted at in his views on race. In common with much of the socialist left in the imperial nations of this era, Curtin (and Scullin) remained subservient to racist views of white superiority. Even while Curtin could write important and radical critiques of the drive toward imperialist war, and did not blame the rising Japanese power for wanting to enjoy the fruits of Empire like the British, he seemed to hope for an ascendant (white) USA to become the dominant influence - at least as a pragmatic outcome if not his ideal of socialist revolution.
The 1921 debate over the Socialisation Objective may not be the definitive point that made Labor into a vehicle for managing Australian capitalism instead of overcoming it - Vere Gordon Childe's 1923 "How Labor Governs" recounts a longer history of accommodation, and not just in Victoria. Nevertheless it is an important snapshot of the long decline to irrelevance of left wing views within the ALP, as is this book.
July 31, 2022
The blurb focusses on the lives of Curtin and Scullin and their contribution to the Australian Labor Party. Yet of greater interest to me were the internal tensions of those seeking social transformation. Should the means of production and transportation be nationalised? Should Victoria follow the lead of the European communists? or should a slower parliamentary process be used to achieve democratic social transformation?
An engaging read both for those interested in the political and social context of Australia from pre-Federation until the Great Depression.
An engaging read both for those interested in the political and social context of Australia from pre-Federation until the Great Depression.
January 1, 2021
Enjoyed this book, learned things I did not know. Enjoyed the premise of the parallel careers and also agree with many of the observations in the conclusion. Debate & standing for something is important
A favourite quote:
P.150....The truth is tha in the labour movement, power was often exercised through such bureaucratic detail as who sat on what committee when.
A favourite quote:
P.150....The truth is tha in the labour movement, power was often exercised through such bureaucratic detail as who sat on what committee when.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews