AustLit

'In Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin: The Making of the Modern Labor Party, Liam Byrne imagines the early Australian Labor Party (ALP) as an organisation of “creative tension”, where policy was determined by ideological contests between socialists and moderate reformers, both sides sharing a commitment to progressive change and transformation through parliamentary action. Byrne wants the Labor Party today to rediscover and revive this culture, this capacity “to host alternative worldviews of commitment to social change within the structures of the party” (p. 171). His book is positioned as a contribution to contemporary debates within the ALP about the party's purpose and direction.'  (Introduction)