Cirrus@Austlit

'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)