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'Fred Rose's life takes us through rip-roaring tales from Australia's northern frontier to enthralling intellectual tussles over kinship systems and political dramas as he runs rings around his Petrov inquisitors.
'More than any other injustice, the abuse of Aborigines leads him into the Communist Party in 1942. His move to academic life in what he insisted on calling the German Democratic Republic made him a dissident against anthropological orthodoxies in the Soviet Bloc as he had been in Australia. Those final three decades also see his informing on his children to his Stasi handlers.
'Out of relentless research, Peter Monteath and Valerie Munt present an engrossing portrait of the short twentieth century from Rose's birth during the Great War to his death in Berlin shortly after the Wall comes down. The result is unputdownable for its sweep of events while causing us to reflect on how someone can be heroic and horrendous, appalling and admirable.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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An Intellectual Cause : Cold War Australia and the Life of Fred Rose
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: History Australia , vol. 14 no. 1 2017; (p. 144-146) 'A rich life story well-told can be one of the most effective ways of reflecting on a particular period. This book is precisely that. In the life story of Fred Rose, Peter Monteath and Valerie Munt offer a rich account of intersecting themes in modern Australian history,including the appeal and growth of communism during the interwar years to a climax in the mid–late 1940s, prior to its suppression and division in the 1950s; the emergence of the discipline of anthropology in Australia, and the patterns of politics and intellectual assumptions surrounding early studies of Aboriginal groups; relations of race and colonial power, including in the frontier town of Darwin before the Second World War; the rise of Canberra during the Second World War and its extending power over the states through war and Cold War; and the inescapable international currents of ideology of the twentieth century in Australian politics and culture.' (Introduction) -
Review : Red Professor : The Cold War Life of Fred Rose
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Politics and History , March vol. 62 no. 1 2016; (p. 144–145)
— Review of Red Professor : The Cold War Life of Fred Rose 2015 single work biography -
[Review Essay] Red Professor: The Cold War Life of Fred Rose
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society , June vol. 102 no. 1 2016; (p. 112-114)'Among the books by anthropologist Frederick Rose is Australia Re-visited: The Aborigine Story from Stone Age to Space Age (1968). In this memoir, written from behind the Iron Curtain, the author casts a critical if nostalgic eye over the country where his politics were forged. I bought my copy from the left-wing bookseller, the late Bob Gould, himself a legendary activist. ‘Fred Rose!’ he bellowed when he saw my purchase. ‘Of all the unreconstructed Stalinists!’' (Introduction)
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[Review Essay] Red Professor: The Cold War Life of Fred Rose, by Peter Monteath and Valerie Munt
2016
single work
essay
review
— Appears in: Arena Magazine , October - November no. 144 2016; (p. 48-50) 'It was not until I reached the third year of an undergraduate degree in the early 1990s at Melbourne University that I finally had an opportunity to read some anthropology of Aboriginal Australia. An assignment required us to develop a mock research grant application and we were given a blank slate to work with in terms of possible topics. At last! I thought, I can read some books I’d been keen to read and project myself into the imagined space of an anthropological fieldworker. Fred Rose’s The Traditional Mode of Production of the Australian Aborigines was one of those books, one readily picked up in second-hand bookshops, its lush cover photo depicting Aboriginal women harvesting file snake and turtle in some verdant northern Australian scene. I was enthused by the book and drafted a research project for a study of women’s contributions to Aboriginal community economy, pitching myself somewhere between Rose’s study and another book about which I had formed a more critical view, Jon Altman’s Hunter-Gatherers Today, which to my eyes lacked sufficient appreciation of women’s roles.' (Introduction) -
Review of The Red Professor : The Cold War Life of Fred Rose
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 1 June vol. 31 no. 3 2016;
— Review of Red Professor : The Cold War Life of Fred Rose 2015 single work biography
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Red, Red Rose
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10-11 October 2015; (p. 18-19)
— Review of Red Professor : The Cold War Life of Fred Rose 2015 single work biography 'Anthropologist, communist, informer. Fred Rose made his own choices, as a new biography makes clear, writes Nicolas Rothwell' -
Red Rose
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 375 2015; (p. 62-63)
— Review of Red Professor : The Cold War Life of Fred Rose 2015 single work biography -
Review : The Red Professor
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Good Reading , November 2015; (p. 62)
— Review of Red Professor : The Cold War Life of Fred Rose 2015 single work biography -
Review : Red Professor : The Cold War Life of Fred Rose
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Politics and History , March vol. 62 no. 1 2016; (p. 144–145)
— Review of Red Professor : The Cold War Life of Fred Rose 2015 single work biography -
Review of The Red Professor : The Cold War Life of Fred Rose
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 1 June vol. 31 no. 3 2016;
— Review of Red Professor : The Cold War Life of Fred Rose 2015 single work biography -
[Review Essay] Red Professor: The Cold War Life of Fred Rose, by Peter Monteath and Valerie Munt
2016
single work
essay
review
— Appears in: Arena Magazine , October - November no. 144 2016; (p. 48-50) 'It was not until I reached the third year of an undergraduate degree in the early 1990s at Melbourne University that I finally had an opportunity to read some anthropology of Aboriginal Australia. An assignment required us to develop a mock research grant application and we were given a blank slate to work with in terms of possible topics. At last! I thought, I can read some books I’d been keen to read and project myself into the imagined space of an anthropological fieldworker. Fred Rose’s The Traditional Mode of Production of the Australian Aborigines was one of those books, one readily picked up in second-hand bookshops, its lush cover photo depicting Aboriginal women harvesting file snake and turtle in some verdant northern Australian scene. I was enthused by the book and drafted a research project for a study of women’s contributions to Aboriginal community economy, pitching myself somewhere between Rose’s study and another book about which I had formed a more critical view, Jon Altman’s Hunter-Gatherers Today, which to my eyes lacked sufficient appreciation of women’s roles.' (Introduction) -
An Intellectual Cause : Cold War Australia and the Life of Fred Rose
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: History Australia , vol. 14 no. 1 2017; (p. 144-146) 'A rich life story well-told can be one of the most effective ways of reflecting on a particular period. This book is precisely that. In the life story of Fred Rose, Peter Monteath and Valerie Munt offer a rich account of intersecting themes in modern Australian history,including the appeal and growth of communism during the interwar years to a climax in the mid–late 1940s, prior to its suppression and division in the 1950s; the emergence of the discipline of anthropology in Australia, and the patterns of politics and intellectual assumptions surrounding early studies of Aboriginal groups; relations of race and colonial power, including in the frontier town of Darwin before the Second World War; the rise of Canberra during the Second World War and its extending power over the states through war and Cold War; and the inescapable international currents of ideology of the twentieth century in Australian politics and culture.' (Introduction) -
[Review Essay] Red Professor: The Cold War Life of Fred Rose
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society , June vol. 102 no. 1 2016; (p. 112-114)'Among the books by anthropologist Frederick Rose is Australia Re-visited: The Aborigine Story from Stone Age to Space Age (1968). In this memoir, written from behind the Iron Curtain, the author casts a critical if nostalgic eye over the country where his politics were forged. I bought my copy from the left-wing bookseller, the late Bob Gould, himself a legendary activist. ‘Fred Rose!’ he bellowed when he saw my purchase. ‘Of all the unreconstructed Stalinists!’' (Introduction)
