WEEK 6 TUTORIAL: Cold War Comforts

(19 April – )

Tutorial question

Why have the 1950s acquired the reputation for being conservative?

How should we define ‘conservative’ in relation to the 1950s?? How should we understand the ‘modernism’ of the 1950s? How did the Cold War and the Bomb affect Australian life? How real was the threat of communism? What social forces kept Menzies and the Liberals in power for so long? What happened to class in the 1950s? Had it become an irrelevant concept? What was the impact of home ownership and the spread of suburbia on social relations in Australia? Did the working class disappear in the suburbs? Did home ownership produce ‘little capitalists’? Why was suburban life so popular? Why were many intellectuals so antagonistic towards suburban life? How did Menzies address Australians’ hopes and fears? What balance did Menzies strike between tradition and change? In what ways did Menzies stand for 'family values'? Compare the experience of suburban life in the 1950s for women, men and children What was the significance of the Queen’s visit? Explain the connections between Catholicism, communism, politics, class and immigration in Australia in the 1950s. Were the 1950s ever as boring as they are often portrayed?

Essential reading

Connell RW & TH Irving Class Structure in Australian History Longman Cheshire, Melbourne 1980 ch.5 especially pp.292ff
Murphy, John Imagining the fifties : private sentiment and political culture in Menzies' Australia Sydney, 2000 Intro & ch 1

Additional reading

**Connors, J 'The 1954 royal tour of Australia' Australian Historical Studies 25(100) April 1993 pp. 371-382 ** reprinted in White and Russell (eds) Memories and Dreams
**Brett, Judith ‘Menzies’ Forgotten People’ Meanjin 43(2) June 1984
Greig, Alastair The Stuff Dreams are Made of: Housing Provision in Australia 1945-1960 Melbourne 1995 ch 6
**Rowse, Tim ‘Heaven and a Hills Hoist: Australian Critics on Suburbia’ Meanjin 37(1) April 1978

Revisit the reminscences (Week 2) by John Lack and John Rickard in John Murphy and Judith Smart (eds) The Forgotten Fifties: Aspects of Australian Society and Culture in the 1950s Melbourne 1997 (special issue of Australian Historical Studies 28(109) October 1997

Others

General:

Stephen Alomes, Mark Dober and Donna Hellier ‘The Social Context of Postwar Conservatism’ in Curthoys A & J Merritt (eds) Australia's First Cold War 1945-53 Vol.1 Society, Communism and Culture Sydney 1984
Boyd, Robin The Australian Ugliness Melbourne 1960 (a classic critique)
Brett, J Robert Menzies' Forgotten People Sydney 1992
Britain, Ian ‘Barry Humphries and the "Feeble Fifties"’ in John Murphy and Judith Smart (eds) The Forgotten Fifties: Aspects of Australian Society and Culture in the 1950s Melbourne 1997 (special issue of Australian Historical Studies 28(109) October 1997
*Brown, Nicholas Governing Prosperity Cambridge 1995
*Davison, Graeme Car Wars: How the car won our hearts and conquered our cities Sydney 2004
Hancock, Ian National and permanent? : the federal organisation of the Liberal Party of Australia 1944-1965 Melbourne, 2000.
Henderson, Gerard Menzies’ Child: The Liberal Party of Australia 1944-1994 Sydney 1994
Hilliard, David ‘God in the suburbs: the religious culture of Australian cities in the 1950s’ Australian Historical Studies 97, Oct 1991
Horne D The Lucky Country Melbourne 1964 ch.8
*Humphries B A Nice Night's Entertainment: Sketches and Monologues 1956-1981 Sydney 1981
Lee, David ‘The 1949 general election: a reinterpretation’ Australian Journal of Political Science 29(3) Nov 1994
Maddock R & F Stilwell 'Boom and Recession' in A Curthoys et.al. (eds) Australians From 1939 Sydney 1987
Martin, Allan Robert Menzies: A Life (2 vols) Melbourne 1993, 1999
McCalman Journeyings: The Biography of a Middle-Class Generation 1920-1990 Melbourne 1993 ch 5
Murphy, John ‘Shaping the Cold War Family: Politics, Domesticity and Policy Interventions in the 1950s’ Australian Historical Studies 26(105) Oct 1995
Prasser, Scott, J.R. Nethercote & John Warhurst (eds) The Menzies era : a reappraisal of government, politics and policy Sydney, 1995.
Rowley K 'The Political Economy of Australia Since the War' in J Playford & D Kirsner (eds) Australian Capitalism Ringwood 1972
Pybus C Gross Moral Turpitude: The Orr case reconsidered Melbourne 1993
Spearritt P 'Royal progress: the Queen and her Australian subjects' Australian Cultural History 5 1986
James Walter ‘Designing Families and Solid Citizens: the dialectic of modernity and the Matrimonial Clauses Bill, 1959’ Australian Historical Studies 116 April 2001
White, Richard ‘The Shock of Affluence: The Fifties in Australia’ in Judith O’Callaghan (ed) The Australian Dream: Design of the 1950s Sydney 1993
*Whitwell G Making the Market: the Rise of Consumer Society, Melbourne 1989

On the Cold War:

Burke, Anthony In fear of security : Australia's invasion anxiety Sydney, 2001 ch 3
Curthoys A & J Merritt (eds) Australia's First Cold War 1945-53 Vol.1 Society, Communism and Culture Sydney 1984
Curthoys A & J Merritt (eds) Better Dead than Red: Australia's First Cold War 1945-53 Vol.2 Sydney 1986
Gollan R Revolutionaries and Reformists Canberra 1975
*Lowe David Menzies and the Great World Struggle: Australia’s Cold War 1948-1954 Sydney 1999
Manne R The Petrov Affair Sydney 1987
*McKnight, David Australia's Spies and their Secrets Sydney 1994

On Catholics and the Split:

O'Farrell P The Irish in Australia Sydney 1987 ch.7
Murray R The Split: Australian Labor in the Fifties Melbourne, 1970
Campion E Rockchoppers: Growing Up Catholic in Australia Melbourne 1982
Buckley V Cutting Green Hay: Friendships, Movements and Cultural Conflicts in Australia's Great Decades Ringwood 1983
Duncan, B Crusade or Conspiracy: Catholics ant the anti-communist struggle in Australia UNSW Press, Sydney 2001
Gilbert A 'Religion and Politics' in Curthoys A et.al. (eds) Australians From 1939 Sydney 1987
*Warhurst J 'Catholics, Communism and the Australian party system : a study of the Menzies years' Politics 14 (2) November 1979

On suburban life:

Ashbolt A 'Godzone 3' Meanjin 25 (4) December 1966
Bolton G Spoils and Spoilers Sydney 1981 ch.13
Curthoys A et.al. (eds) Australians From 1939 Sydney 1987 chapters by Gilbert on suburbs and Spearritt on the car
Davison, Graeme, Tony Dingle and Seamus O’Hanlon Cream Brick Frontier: Histories of Australian Suburbia Melbourne 1995
*Dickey B 'On living a petit bourgeois life in the 1950s' Australia 1939-1988 Bulletin 3 May 1981
*Dingle, Tony and Seamus O’Hanlon ‘Modernism versus Domesticity: The Contest to Shape Melbourne’s Homes, 1945-1960’ in John Murphy and Judith Smart (eds) The Forgotten Fifties: Aspects of Australian Society and Culture in the 1950s Melbourne 1997 (special issue of Australian Historical Studies 28(109) October 1997
*Fiske J et.al Myths of Oz. Reading Australian Popular Culture Sydney 1987 ch.2
Frost, Lionel The New Urban Frontier: urbanisation and city-building in Australiasia and the American West Sydney 1991
**Game A & R Pringle 'Sexuality and the suburban dream' Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology 15 (2) July 1979
Garden, DonBuilders to the Nation: the A V Jennings Story Melbourne 1992
Greig, Alastair The Stuff Dreams are Made of: Housing Provision in Australia 1945-1960 Melbourne 1995 ch 6
Humphries B A Nice Night's Entertainment: Sketches and Monologues 1956-1981 Sydney 1981
Johnson K People and Property in Clayton: Development and Change in an Outer Suburb of Melbourne in the 1950s and 60s Canberra 1979
Kelly M (ed) Sydney: City of Suburbs Sydney 1987 essays by Kass, Alport and Aplin
Kemeny, J The Great Australian Nightmare: a critique of the home ownership ideology Melbourne 1994
*Kemeny J 'The ideology of home ownership' Arena 46 1977
Lees S & J Senyard The 1950s: how Australia became a modern society, and everyone got a house and car Melbourne 1987 Ch.3
O’Callaghan, Judith (ed) The Australian Dream: Design of the 1950s Sydney 1993
*Peel Mark 'Making a Place: Women in the "Worker's City"'Australian Historical Studies 26(102) April 1994
*Peel, Mark Good Times, Hard Times: The Past and the Future in Elizabeth Melbourne 1995
Pickett, Charles The Fibro Frontier: a different history of Australian architecture Sydney 1997 pp4-41
Rowse T Australian Liberalism and National Character ch.5
Sandercock L Cities for Sale Melbourne 1977
Serle, Geoffrey Robin Boyd: a life Melbourne 1995
Spearritt P Sydney Since the Twenties Sydney 1978 chs. 5 & 10
Stretton H Ideas for Australian Cities Adelaide 1970
*Transition 38 1992 Special Issue on Robin Boyd