Hawke The Early Years

by d'Alpuget, Blanche

• ISBN13: 9780522858006
• ISBN10: 0522858007
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-01-01
• Publisher: Melbourne University Press

Summary

Robert James Lee Hawke is one of the great men of Australian public life and his story makes compelling reading. This re-release of Blanche d'Alpuget's classic 1982 biography remains one of the finest examples of political biography in Australian literature. Hawke was a Rhodes Scholar, educated in three universities, before rejecting an academic career to commit himself to the trade union movement. Son of devout Christian parents, he had been reared to public duty and to the ambition of political leadership. He first came to prominence in 1959 as the new union wages advocate, and before the age of thirty he had established a reputation for brilliance in that arena. To unionists he was a giant killer; employers saw him as a crypto-Communist bent upon their destruction. In his decade as the Australian Council of Trade Unions advocate, he confronted the inadequacies of Australia's wage fixing system, forcing reform upon that central sphere of economic life. As President of the ACTU from 1970 to 1980 he was a master negotiator and peacemaker in industrial life. Those who read this biography will come to know Hawke intimately. A fine writer, Blanche d'Alpuget's sensitivity and psychological insight illuminate this complex and enigmatic man.

Author Biography

Blanche d’Alpuget is a journalist and the author of numerous books, including Mediator: A Biography of Sir Richard Kirby, On Longing, and Winter in Jerusalem. She is the recipient of the Age Novel of the Year award, the Australasian Prize for Commonwealth Literature, and the South Australian Premier's Award.