The Young Menzies Success, Failure, Resilience 1894–1942

The Young Menzies: Success, Failure, Resilience 1894–1942 explores the formative period of Menzies’s life, when his personal outlook and system of beliefs that would help shape modern Australia were themselves still being formed. Contributors look at Menzies’s ideas prior to their political practice and examine their context and origins. This period is also the time in which Menzies first attained power, though in difficult circumstances, when the focus of the nation was on survival. It was in losing office that Menzies was given the impetus to develop his vision for post-war Australia.

This is the first of a four-volume history of Menzies and his world, based on conferences convened by the Robert Menzies Institute at the University of Melbourne. Contributors include Frank Bongiorno, Troy Bramston, Judith Brett, Nick Cater, Justice James Edelman, David Furse-Roberts, Anne Henderson, David Kemp, Angela Kittikhoun, Greg Melleuish and Scott Prasser, with a foreword by Geoffrey Blainey.

About the editor:

Dr Zachary Gorman is the academic coordinator at the Robert Menzies Institute. A professional historian, Gorman has worked as a researcher and academic since 2013, including several years at the University of Wollongong, where he received his PhD. He has written two books, Sir Joseph Carruthers: Founder of the New South Wales Liberal Party and Summoning Magna Carta: Freedom’s Symbol Over a Millennium, and edited and annotated the 250th anniversary edition of Captain James Cook, R.N.: 150 Years After. He has been published in a wide range of academic journals. 

Product details:

Editor: Zachary Gorman

Publisher: Melbourne University Press

Dimensions: 240 x 160 x 19 mm

Pages: 204

Format: Hardback

Publication date: 1 December 2022

ISBN: 9780522879223