Books published by Melbourne University Press

For each new generation of Australians, the name Robert Gordon Menzies resounds across the political landscape. No other federal politician this century can match his record period as Prime Minister, from 1949 to 1966. Not one of us is untouched by his life and work.This long-awaited second volume of Allan Martin's unrivaled biography describes and analyses the flowering of policies and practices foretold in the first. Beginning with the birth of the Liberal Party at the end of World War II, it is the first detailed study of Menzies' climb to power and of his post-war strategies for the country and the world. It ends with his death in 1978, mourned by many as an irreplaceable leader and father figure.The tumultuous years of the 1950s were echoed in Menzies' own life. His political acumen built on universal Cold War fears, and his anti-communist campaigns brought him into bitter conflict with H. V. Evatt. Menzies' frequent trips to the United States and Great Britain, usually by sea and invariably in time for the Test cricket, fuelled accusations of absenteeism.Menzies' lifelong devotion to all things British, most notably the monarchy, was rewarded towards the end of his life by investiture as a Knight of the Thistle and by his succeeding Winston Churchill as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The personal pleasure derived from his growing international stature cushioned to some degree his fall from power in domestic politics.This volume completes a monumental contribution to Australian political biography. For both scholars and ordinary Australians, Allan Martin has sought to chronicle Menzies' life and to judge what kind of a man he was and what sort of prime ministerial life he led.

While the hard work of Asian migrants has been praised, their achievements have ignited fierce debates. What is missing in these debates is an understanding of what drives Asian migrant parents' approaches to education. This book explores how aspirations for their children's future reinforce anxieties about being newcomers in an unequal society.

The global magnitude of World War I has meant that proximity and distance were highly influential in the ways the conflict was conducted, and how it was experienced at tactical, political and emotional levels. This book explores how participants and observers in World War I negotiated the temporal and spatial challenges of the conflict.

Derryn Hinch made headlines in 2016 when he went from media personality to Victorian Senator at the head of a new political party and made a lasting impact on the political landscape. This is an unflinchingly honest account of his last two years as a senator, before he lost his seat in the 2019 election.

The Andromeda Galaxy is rushing towards us at 400,000 kilometres an hour. When Galaxies Collide will guide you to look at the night sky afresh. It peers 5.86 billion years into the future to consider the fate of Earth. Will the solution be to live in space without a planet to call home? Will one of the other 100 billion planets spawn life?

Based on in-depth research with divorced Muslim women, community leaders and local religious authorities, this book reveals the complexities facing Muslim women in negotiating family expectations, cultural norms and traditional Islamic laws.

Takes the relationship between literature and politics seriously, analysing the work of six writers, each the author of a classic text about Australian society. These authors bridge the history of local writing, from pre-Federation colonial Australia to the contemporary moment.

What seduced publishing trailblazer Hilary McPhee to an exotic writing project in Jordan? Curiosity, political engagement, mad bravery? McPhee's brutally honest memoir traverses wild terrain, from Italy to Amman.

In 1978, Evan Pederick, a naive 22-year-old in the thrall of a radical religious movement, Ananda Marga, placed an enormous bomb outside Sydney's Hilton Hotel. Here is his story, told for the first time - an extraordinary tale of guilt, remorse, renewal, and the search for forgiveness.