It's Time Again: Whitlam and Modern Labor

by Jenny Hocking (Editor), Colleen Lewis (Editor), Gough Whitlam

Thirty years ago, Gough Whitlam's government made history, both through its policies and through the manner of its dismissal. The ideological battle that still rages around the mere mention of the Whitlam Government is no longer one of judgement over its political activism, it is now a battle over the historical retelling of that activism.

This collection of essays by leading academics, commentators and the former Prime Minister himself, looks at the circumstances of both the creation and demise of the Whitlam Government and in doing so sets the Whitlam era on a broader canvas. These essays allow us to read Whitlamism beyond its specific policy developments and to see it as essentially modernist politics.

The ability of Gough Whitlam to lead the Labor Party through a period of policy renewal and into a difficult process of electoral persuasion is contrasted with the difficulty facing the contemporary ALP in its efforts to function as a strong and vibrant party well versed in the responsibilities of Opposition.

478 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2003

About the author

Jenny Hocking FASSA is emeritus professor at Monash University and the inaugural distinguished Whitlam fellow with the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University. She is the author of three biographies, including the award-winning two-volume biography of Gough Whitlam, Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History (MUP, 2008) and Gough Whitlam: His Time (MUP, 2012). Her latest book is The Dismissal Dossier: The Palace Connection (MUP, 2017).