Cirrus@Austlit

'Lost in the traditional stories of Depression and unemployment is the extraordinary technological and media revolution that was taking place in Australia of the interwar years. For it was in these years that we now find the origins of the great media empires of the twentieth century: the house of Murdoch and Packer. It saw, too, the birth of widespread radio technology and the iconic Australian serial, The Australian Women's Weekly. Indeed, as Bridget Griffen-Foley demonstrates here, the 1920s and 1930s were far from being just an age of economic hardship. Rather, this was perhaps the first period in Australian history in which most citizens were afforded the opportunity to experience extraordinary new communications technology.'

Syson investigates the background to recent attempts by right-wing journalists, historians and intellectuals (mainly in Quadrant and the Courier-Mail) to discredit some former sympathisers with socialism and communism, such as Manning Clark and Henry Reynolds. This leads to a more general discussion of the representation of Australia's history, the role Quadrant, the CIA and the Australian Association for Cultural Freedom have played in it, and the continuing impact of the Cold War on Australian politics and culture.