Australian Republicanism: A Reader

’We Love the Queen. We honour the Queen. We serve the Queen.’--R. G. Menzies

’We must be ourselves.’-Patrick White

This collection of readings is designed to transform the way Australians understand republicanism. The editors, Mark McKenna and Wayne Hudson, have harvested a wealth of previously neglected historical sources to produce a fascinating collection of original documents that grapple with the issue of Australian republicanism. In the vein of Manning Clark’s Select Documents in Australian History, this collection offers an inspiring and salient sample of Australian viewpoints, from the famous to the obscure, the official to the flagrantly informal, the rhetorical to the ridiculous.

McKenna and Hudson argue with wit and conviction that the republic has a place in Australia’s future, but only if it is a republic founded on a vision of inclusion. ’This is the first principle of creating a sense of ownership and belonging--a republic about which people might begin to care.’

Mark McKenna is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Political Science Program at the Australian National University, Canberra. Wayne Hudson is Professor of History and Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities at Griffith University.