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I Remember
JOHN THOMAS LANG requires no introduction to an Australian reading audience. For thirty years he was the dominant figure in New South Wales Labor politics. Each step he took seemed to arouse controversy. His supporters during the critical years of the Depression acclaimed him as the greatest man produced by Australian Labor. To them he was the Big Fellow. Big in stature, he thought and acted expansively. He was bold and aggressive, without compromise. Great social reforms such as child endowments, widows' pensions and workers' compensation became identified with his name.
His political enemies were many. He was accused of trying to wreck Imperial relations. He was the bogey man of the Depression. There were threats of assassination. A Fascist movement was formed to get rid of him, complete with plans to kidnap and imprison him while a new Government was installed. He clashed with State Governors. While cast crowds were chanting "Lang is Right," his opponents were sending petitions to the King against him. He was dismissed from office. He still lives to hear his most bitter opponents declare "Lang was before his time. He was right."
Lang has belonged to the Labor Party almost from the day of its foundation. He has now set down his impressions of some of its greatest moments, and its darkest hours. These are vignettes of the political scene from the birth of the party to the dawn of the Great Depression. It is the first volume of a Trilogy of Labor that he has planned and is now busy writing. But he is still active in politics, keeping abreast of contemporary developments and makes his weekly contribution to political polemics.
Lang is always interesting. He can never be dull. This volume makes it clear why he became the dynamic figure, arousing either intense loyalty or deep hate. He detests hypocrisy and pretence. He admires a hard-hitting opponent, just as he despises the Labor politician who denounces the capitalists from the platform and then wines and dines with them on a back-slapping basis. Lang has never owned or worn a dinner jacket. In some men that might seem like a pose of the demagogue. In Lang it is just the index of character. He is the old-time Labor fundamentalist.
So he writes his story as he sees it from that viewpoint. There are neither inhibitions nor polite reservations. He believes that history is a simple narrative of events, to be told as it happened. That is what he has set out to do in this volume. While looking backwards, like Edward Bellamy, he is still looking forward.
His political enemies were many. He was accused of trying to wreck Imperial relations. He was the bogey man of the Depression. There were threats of assassination. A Fascist movement was formed to get rid of him, complete with plans to kidnap and imprison him while a new Government was installed. He clashed with State Governors. While cast crowds were chanting "Lang is Right," his opponents were sending petitions to the King against him. He was dismissed from office. He still lives to hear his most bitter opponents declare "Lang was before his time. He was right."
Lang has belonged to the Labor Party almost from the day of its foundation. He has now set down his impressions of some of its greatest moments, and its darkest hours. These are vignettes of the political scene from the birth of the party to the dawn of the Great Depression. It is the first volume of a Trilogy of Labor that he has planned and is now busy writing. But he is still active in politics, keeping abreast of contemporary developments and makes his weekly contribution to political polemics.
Lang is always interesting. He can never be dull. This volume makes it clear why he became the dynamic figure, arousing either intense loyalty or deep hate. He detests hypocrisy and pretence. He admires a hard-hitting opponent, just as he despises the Labor politician who denounces the capitalists from the platform and then wines and dines with them on a back-slapping basis. Lang has never owned or worn a dinner jacket. In some men that might seem like a pose of the demagogue. In Lang it is just the index of character. He is the old-time Labor fundamentalist.
So he writes his story as he sees it from that viewpoint. There are neither inhibitions nor polite reservations. He believes that history is a simple narrative of events, to be told as it happened. That is what he has set out to do in this volume. While looking backwards, like Edward Bellamy, he is still looking forward.
416 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1956
11 people want to read
About the author
J.T. Lang
4 books4 followersJohn Thomas "Jack" Lang was an Australian Labor Party politician who served as the 23rd Premier of New South Wales from 1925 to 1927 and again from 1930 to 1932. He was dismissed by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Philip Game, at the climax of the 1932 constitutional crisis and resoundingly lost the resulting election and subsequent elections as Leader of the Opposition. He later formed a splinter party and was briefly a member of the Australian House of Representatives.
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August 6, 2025
God bless Australia's greatest man! An incredibly interesting memoir and a wonderful insight into the politics of his time
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