AustLit

'Both Judith Brett’s The Enigmatic Mr Deakin and Julia Suares’ J.B. Chifley: An ardent internationalist have received much attention since their publication in 2017 and 2019. This review is coming late to the parties welcoming the revitalisation of our understanding of two of Australia’s most significant prime ministers. The coupling of these books here might seem unlikely. Alfred Deakin (1856–1919) and Ben Chifley (1885–1951) led during transformative periods. Brett judges Deakin ‘Australia’s most constructive prime minister before … World War Two’ (330); Suares seeks greater recognition of Chifley’s influence in shaping the reconstruction agenda following that war, particularly in pursuing a bold ‘emergent future’ of international cooperation (18). In background and personality, however, the two can hardly have been more different. What can these two studies, and these two men, show when viewed side-by-side? At a time when the personal account dominates discussion of political leadership, it is in itself refreshing to reflect on the different contexts that shaped these figures, not as individual projects but as lives interdependent with their times.' (Introduction)