John Curtin's war. volume 1 / John Edwards. John Curtin's war : the coming of war in the Pacific, and reinventing Australia

Collection type	Library
Author	Edwards, John (John Ker), author.;
Call Number	940.5426 E26 V.1
Document type	Monograph
Year	2017. 2017. 017.
Pagination	xx, 538 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm.
Publisher	Viking, an imprint of Penguin Books, Penguin Random House,
Note	Viking an imprint of Penguin Books. Includes bibliographical references and index. John Curtin became Australia's Prime Minister eight weeks before Japan launched war in the Pacific.Curtin's struggle for power against Joe Lyons and Bob Menzies, his dramatic use of it when he took office in October 1941, and his determination to be heard in Washington and London as Japan advanced, is a political epic unmatched in Australian experience. As Japan sank much of the Allied navy, advanced on the great British naval base at Singapore, and seized Australian territories in New Guinea, Curtin rema de Australia. Using much new material John Edwards' vivid, landmark biography places Curtin as a man of his times, puzzling through the immense changes in Australia and its region released by the mighty shock of the Pacific War. It shows Curtin not as a h ero and certainly not as a villain but as the pivotal figure making his uncertain way between what Australia was, and what it would become. It locates the turning point in Australian history not at Gallipoli or the Western Front or even Federation but in the Pacific War and in Curtin's Prime Ministership.This two volume work is a major contribution to Australian biography, and to how we understand our history. In this first part, Edwards takes Curtin's story from the late nineteenth century socialist ferm ent in Melbourne through to his appointment as prime minister and a Japanese onslaught so complete and successful that within a few months of launching it military leaders in Tokyo debated between the options of invading Australia, or sealing it off from Allied help.
Place made	[Melbourne, Victoria] : [Melbourne, Victoria] :

Abstract

7 October 1941 -- The trans -- The life that thrills -- A new beginning -- Capitalism is collapsing -- Perth again -- Labor leadership -- The men who matter -- Curtin''s Australia -- Leader -- Defending the Empire -- Menzies to power -- Menzies versus Curt in -- War in Europe -- Australia defenceless -- Jnife edge -- Curtin warns of war in the Pacific -- Preparing for government -- Curtin to power -- Curtin forms his government -- Early decisions, and caucus crisis -- It has come -- Turning to America Curti n appeals to Roosevelt and Churchill -- AIF for the Pacific war -- Resistance collapses in Malaya, Rabaul is invaded, and Curtin makes an ill-timed visit to Perth -- Fall of Singapore bringing the AIF home -- The threat of Japanese invasion -- Australia i mperilled.