John Curtin: A Biography

This is an important classic biography of an Australian Prime Minister whose life still exerts an abiding influence on Australian society and national consciousness--a key figure in Australian history.

’Curtin was a complex character. Warm and sympathetic, but cold and aloof; a comrade but a loner; a rebel and anti-conscriptionist but Prime Minister. Moody; irritable; uncertain; changeable; vacillating; temperamental; opportunist; sentimental; courageous; all are true of Curtin.’ Lloyd Ross sums up the character of the wartime Labor Prime Minister who fought Churchill to bring back Australian troops from Europe to defend our nation. An intense and passionate orator, Curtin inspired respect in cynical Australians by his unassuming dignity, straightforwardness and refusal of any personal privilege.

Lloyd Ross was the director of public relations for the department of Postwar Reconstruction, 1943-49. Thereafter he pursued a distinguished career in Australian public and intellectual life. He is the author of ＂William Lane and the Australian Labour Movement.＂