AustLit

Time of Conflict (1961) is the story of Mick Anderson, the son of a rural battler, who learns his communism the hard way through the Depression, unemployment and imprisonment but discovers himself in the process, rising to become an important figure in the labour movement. ... The novel is nothing if not ambitious, for Mick's story is set up as the story of communism itself in Australia, the story of the working class or the 'people' and their evolution from an instinctive radical nationalism into a fully class-conscious movement.' David Carter, 'Introduction', Judah Waten : Fiction, Memoirs, Criticism (1998): (xxvii).