Free Unholy Fury by James Curran

 
    PRAISE FOR
UNHOLY FURY
    â€˜An utterly compelling story wonderfully told. A new prime minister, Australia’s first Labor head of government in almost a quarter of a century, confronts a wilful, no less spiteful US president newly re-elected yet one already under siege to domestic events which ultimately destroy him. The visitor is determined to set Australia on a more independent foreign policy. Washington, grown used to sycophants from Canberra, is equally adamant to bring him to heel. James Curran has written one of the most important books of recent memory.’
    Alan Ramsey
    â€˜This path-breaking book is filled with revelations and insights. It is the story of Australia coming to maturity.’
    Paul Kelly, Editor at Large,
The Australian
    â€˜This important book reveals for the first time the full depth of the rift between Australia and its key ally during the Whitlam years. Enlightening and entertaining in equal measure, sparkling with wit and insight,
Unholy Fury
shows how Gough Whitlam’s effort to redefine the alliance so antagonised the Nixon administration that it considered abandoning ANZUS altogether. Drawing on rich research in newly declassified sources in both countries, the book provides a compelling, sometimes laugh-out-loud account of the personalities and politics of the era—and offers much to ponder for anyone interested in the Australian—US relationship today.’
    Barbara Keys, Associate Professor of History, University of Melboune
    â€˜
Unholy Fury
is both an elegant and illuminating account of a crucial moment in Australian and American diplomatic history, and a much-needed meditation on the tangle of risk and politics at the heart of the ANZUS alliance.’
    Michael Wesley, Professor of International Affairs, Director,
Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
    â€˜The Australian–American relationship has probably only suffered one really bad moment: and this is it, the subject of James Curran’s superbly researched and written account of the Nixon—Whitlam era. It’s more than a history of this moment, however. It’s a book about the dilemma both Australia and America face in managing an alliance relationship—bristling with dangers as well as mutual advantage.’
    Bob Carr

 
    ALSO BY JAMES CURRAN
    THE POWER OF SPEECH: AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTERS DEFINING THE NATIONAL IMAGE

(MUP, 2004)
    â€˜a rare and welcome beast: a work of scholarship that is eminently and compellingly readable’.
    Adelaide Review
    â€˜Curran … is persuasive in showing how much ideas matter. This comprehensive history of the stories our prime ministers have told is essential reading.’
    James Walter,
Age
    â€˜An important, intriguing book that demonstrates how politicians have wrestled with the idea of what makes an Australian and how we should relate to the world since the 1940s … Curran is a subtle thinker who has distilled meaning from a mass of documents
    Stephen Matchett,
Weekend Australian
    â€˜this important book is not only a significant contribution to the identity debate and to prime ministerial biography but to contemporary Australian history. Curran has succeeded in showing how prime ministers from Curtin and Chifley to Keating and Howard have interpreted Australian history, Australian society and Australia’s place in the world.’
    NSW History Awards, 2005
    THE UNKNOWN NATION: AUSTRALIA AFTER EMPIRE

With Stuart Ward (MUP, 2010)
    â€˜this excellent study … presents what is likely to be an influential interpretation of an important aspect of the recent past … a significant book, and certainly a landmark.’
    Frank Bongiorno,
History Australia
    â€˜illuminating and entertaining … this book sheds new light on the political, cultural and intellectual history of the post-war period in Australia’.
    Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History,