Nick Dyrenfurth

Frank Bongiorno

The Australian Labor Party is one of the oldest labour parties and was the first in the world to form a government. 2011 marks its 120th birthday This short and lively book tells the story of the ALPs numerous successes in winning government at all levels and making policy that has transformed lives.

A Little History of the Australian Labor Party

Winner of the 2013 ACT Book of the Year Award. Cross-dressing colonists, effeminate bushrangers and women-shortage woes – here is the first ever history of sex in Australia, from Botany Bay to the present-day In this highly readable social history, Frank Bongiorno uses striking examples to chart the changing sex lives of Australians. He shows how an overwhelmingly male penal colony gave rise to a rough and ready culture: the scarcity of women made for strange bedfellows, and the female minority was both powerful and vulnerable. Then came the Victorian era, in which fears of sodomy helped bring an end to the transportation of convicts. The twentieth century saw the rise of the sex expert. Tracing the story up to the present, Bongiorno shows how the quest for respectability always has another side to it, and how the contraceptive pill changed so much. Along the way he raises some intriguing questions – What did it mean to be a ‘mate’? How did modern warfare affect soldiers’ attitudes to sex? Why did the law ignore lesbianism for so long? – and introduces some remarkable characters, both reformers and radicals. This is a thought-provoking story of sex in Australia. With a foreword by Michael Kirby, AC CMG. Shortlisted for the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Awards and the 2013 NSW Premier's History Awards. “Bongiorno has written a major synthesis of an aspect too often forgotten in our historical memories.” - Australian Book Review 'Engaging, open-minded and humorous' – Bookseller+Publisher Magazine “Frank Bongiorno’s The Sex Lives of Australians is one of the most important works of Australian history to be published in the last decade.” - H-Net Review Frank Bongiorno is associate professor of history at the Australian National University and the co-author of A Little History of the Australian Labor Party (2011). He was the London correspondent for Inside Story and has been a regular contributor to the Canberra Times.

A History

The Sex Lives of Australians

In this compelling and comprehensive work, renowned historian Frank Bongiorno presents a social and cultural history of Australia's political life, from pre-settlement Indigenous systems to the present day. Depicting a wonderful parade of dreamers and schemers, Bongiorno surveys moments of political renewal and sheds fresh light on our democratic life. From local pubs and meeting halls to the parliament and cabinet; from pamphleteers and stump orators to party agents and operatives - this enthralling account looks at the political insiders in the halls of power, as well as the agitators and outsiders who sought to shape the nation from the margins. A work of political history like no other, Dreamers and Schemers will transform the way you look at Australian politics.

A Political History of Australia

Dreamers and Schemers

It was the era of Hawke and Keating, Kylie and INXS, the America’s Cup and the Bicentenary. It was perhaps the most controversial decade in Australian history, with high-flying entrepreneurs booming and busting, torrid debates over land rights and immigration, the advent of AIDS, a harsh recession and the rise of the New Right. It was a time when Australians fought for social change – on union picket lines, at rallies for women’s rights and against nuclear weapons, and as part of a new environmental movement. And then there were the events that left many scratching their heads: Joh for Canberra . . . the Australia Card . . . Cliff Young. In The Eighties, Frank Bongiorno brings all this and more to life. He uncovers forgotten stories – of factory workers proud of their skills who found themselves surplus to requirements; of Vietnamese families battling to make new lives for themselves in the suburbs. He sheds new light on ‘both the ordinary and extraordinary things that happened to Australia and Australians during this liveliest of decades’. The Eighties is contemporary history at its best. ‘Frank Bongiorno has successfully negotiated the minefield of Australia’s political egos to write the definitive account of an inspired, infuriating decade.’ – George Megalogenis

The Decade That Transformed Australia

The Eighties

David Lee

Carl Bridge

Marks the centenary of the posting of the first Australian High Commissioner in London, so beginning what is today Australia's oldest diplomatic mission. In 1910, when Sir George Reid was appointed its first High Commissioner in London, Australia was a self-governing but not yet sovereign state and the Australian Governor-General remained the most important channel of communication between the Australian and United Kingdom governments until the late 1920s. The book traces the history of the office and in doing so illuminates the larger story of Australian-United Kingdom relations in the twentieth century, the evolution of Australia from British colony to sovereign state and the gradual transition of the United Kingdom from head of an empire to member of the European Union.

Frank Bongiorno

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