Earle Christmas Grafton Page (1880–1961) – surgeon, Country Party leader, treasurer and prime minister – was perhaps the most extraordinary visionary to hold high public office in twentieth-century Australia. Over decades, he made determined efforts to seize ‘the psychological moment’, and thereby realise his vision of a decentralised, regionalised and rationally ordered nation. Page’s unique dreaming of a very different Australia encompassed new states, hydroelectricity, economic planning, cooperative federalism and rural universities. His story casts light on the wider place in history of visions of national development. He was Australia’s most important advocate of developmentalism, the important yet little-studied stream of thought that assumes that governments can lead the nation to realise its economic potential. His audacious synthesis of ideas delineated and stretched the Australian political imagination. Page’s rich career confirms that Australia has long inspired popular ideals of national development, but also suggests that their practical implementation was increasingly challenged during the twentieth century. Effervescent, intelligent and somewhat eccentric, Page was one of Australia’s great optimists. Few Australian leaders who stood for so much have since been so neglected.

The Second World War was a dominant experience in Australian history. For the first time the country faced the threat of invasion. The economy and society were mobilised to an unprecedented degree, with 550 000 men and women, or one in twelve of a population of over 7 million, serving in the armed forces overseas. Social patterns and family life were disrupted. Politically, the war gave a new legitimacy to the Australian Labor Party which had been confined to the wilderness of the Opposition at the Federal level for most of the inter-war years. The powers of the Federal government increased and a new momentum for social reform was generated at the popular and governmental level. In the international sphere, the war fundamentally shook Australian confidence in the power on which it had relied for generations, Great Britain. It generated a sense of independence in Australian foreign policy and initiated a new, if halting and problematic, realignment towards the United States. In this accessible book Joan Beaumont, Kate Darian-Smith, David Lee, David Lowe, Marnie Haig-Muir, Roy Hay and David Walker consider the range of Australia's experience of this conflict. In a single volume they draw together the many aspects of the war and distil the current state of historical scholarship. Australia's War 1939-45 will be invaluable to tertiary students and of enormous interest to the reader concerned with the social, political and military history of Australia. A companion volume on the First World War is also available.

The Nationals tells the story of the NSW National Party from its foundation in 1919 as The Progressive Party to the contemporary era under Andrew Stoner's leadership. Paul Davey, a former Federal Director and NSW General Secretary, writes with an insider's knowledge of the politics, policies and personalities that have shaped the modern party. His research is comprehensive including unfettered access to party archives. Emerging in the wake of World War I, The Progressive Party splits after only two years when seven of its 15 members refuse to join a coalition government. These dissidents become known as the True Blues and are the founding parliamentary members of the Country and subsequent National Party. The party grows into one of the largest political organisations in the country, boasting nearly 50,000 financial members in New South Wales in the 1980s. It fights off merger proposals and survives, despite constant predictions of impending doom, as the only party which exclusively represents rural and regional New South Wales. The State party is also highly influential in the national context; every Federal Leader since John McEwen's retirement in 1971 has come from New South Wales. The Nationals is as much about people as policies. Davey studied a myriad of documents and interviewed a wide cross-section of party figures including all surviving State and Federal leaders. The studies and candid comments shed new light on people, policies and incidents ranging from Mick Bruxner's and David Drummond's building of inland roads, railways and country education facilities to Charles Cutler's fight for State Aid for Independent schools; from the repulse of the Joh for Canberra campaign and Pauline Hanson's One Nation to the challenge of Independents; from sometimes poisonous relations with the United Australia and Liberal parties to the State's longest serving Coalition Government; from relations with the media, especially the country press, to the role of women and young people in the organisation; from the threats posed by changing demographics and electoral redistributions to the push by Doug Anthony to change the name from Country Party to National Country Party and later National Party. The Nationals tells the story of a unique organisation - a political party that is not factionalised and that, despite occasional defections (not new in any party) remains remarkably stable. It has had only nine State and 11 Federal parliamentary leaders in its entire history to date. Moreover, while at times recording an apparently small share of the vote, it consistently returns a forceful block of members to the New South Wales and Commonwealth parliaments and wields, some would say disproportionately so, a significant influence on Australia's political direction. A NSW Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government publication.

How much do we know about the second most important office in the nation? Who was Australia's first treasurer? Who resigned because of a relationship breakdown with the PM? And who did Frank Hardy base his character Ted Thurgood in Power without Glory on? The Money Men is the first in-depth look at the twelve most notable and interesting men to have held the office of Treasurer of Australia. Former Treasurer Chris Bowen brings a unique insider perspective to the lessons learned from the successes and failures of those who went before him. Who does Chris Bowen think has been Australia’s most exceptional Treasurer? With revealing interviews of the five last treasurers, The Money Men dares to answer that question.

"Biography of three generations of the one family (Hubert, Doug and Larry Anthony), all of whom for over some 70 years held the Federal seat of Richmond in NSW for the National Party. Note that the hold on the seat was not continuous for this entire period. Author is also a member of the National Party)".--Provided by publisher.