School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 2 of 2
-
ItemThe Age and the young Menzies: a chapter in Victorian liberalism( 2010)The Melbourne Age was Robert Menzies' favourite newspaper. This thesis investigates the early years of Menzies' political career, when his relationship with The Age and its senior personnel was established. It is a comparative study of two liberalisms: that of the principal creator of the Liberal Party of Australia, and of a newspaper famous for its liberal affiliations. The Age had been closely identified with the Liberal politician Alfred Deakin in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After Geoffrey Syme became its proprietor in 1908, The Age pursued a programmatic agenda based in the dominant liberal ideology of the day, social liberalism, which stood for responsible citizenship and State intervention. The paper was influenced by both Deakinism and its New Liberal equivalent in Britain, whose political representatives were Herbert Asquith and David Lloyd George. When Menzies emerged on the Victorian political stage in the mid-twenties, The Age still stood for ideals and institutions which had been influential in the first decade of nationhood: New Protection, the conciliation and arbitration system, responsible trade unionism, accountable government, and social meliorism. The early chapters of the thesis explore the paper's political outlook, focusing on its vigorous campaign against the conservative ascendancy in non-Labor politics. That the newspaper remained a coherent exemplar of New Liberal orthodoxy from 1908 until the outbreak of the Second World War is one of the study's main findings. To Syme, the young Menzies represented a talented new generation of Liberal reformer. The Age vigorously supported his election to the Victorian Legislative Council in 1928, and his subsequent move to the Assembly. Despite the paper's hopes for him, Menzies' liberal-conservative tendencies were soon strongly to the fore. During the Depression, he aggressively opposed the introduction of unemployment insurance. When Menzies joined economists and primary producers in attacking the regime of tariff protection that was central to The Age's Deakinite identity, the relationship between the newspaper and the politician reached a low watermark. These episodes are explored in detail. The second half of the thesis focuses on Menzies's ideological make-up. It identifies him as a post-Deakinite whose personal politics were a contradictory mixture of older and newer streams of liberalism, and whose personal style was a mixture of pragmatism tinged with a consciousness of the legacy of Deakinite idealism. The phrase 'blended liberalism' usefully describes Menzies' political makeup by the late thirties. Three major influences on his political ideology are identified: the Victorian Liberal tradition; the Law, which was his first and, he said, best loved calling; and his family's Presbyterian faith. The thesis also explores Menzies' friendship with the British Conservative leader, Stanley Baldwin, a devout Anglican whose constructive social vision influenced Menzies. The final chapter of the thesis is a case study of the National Health and Pensions Insurance Act (1938), a regime of compulsory contributory social insurance which was based on the British model and included elements of Lloyd George's original bill and of Baldwin's extended scheme. Both Menzies and The Age supported the Australian measure. The thesis discusses how their shared campaign for national insurance brought them back into close relationship, yet how their ideological rationales for national insurance were significantly different.
-
ItemTough as buggery: traditional Australian circus, community and belonging( 2010)This thesis is a cultural study of traditional family-operated Australian circuses. Traditional circuses have been active in Australia since the 1830s, and are possibly our last actively nomadic settler community. Drawing on archival research, extensive oral history interviews and ethnographic participant observation, this thesis examines the meaning of belonging and community for this group of people. It argues that belonging is an active process, not predicated on geographic place, and the key signifier for circus people is the daily ‘performance’ of their history, culture and identity. This discussion of community and belonging is framed within notions of ‘performativity’, in recognition of both the profession of circus performance, and the performative nature of circus life. Circus people are consummate performers, and the line between their professional and private lives, public and private ‘performances’, characters and identities are often deeply blurred. This thesis argues that the repeated remembrance and performance of circus history is the root of belonging, giving circus people a deep understanding of their cultural ‘place’ in the broader narrative of Australia. It examines how circus performs itself for the public gaze through the vehicle of the circus show, and how this forges a sense of belonging through shared understanding, action, and physical commitment. It interrogates how the ‘performance’ of private circus culture creates a sense of 'home' regardless of place; how the public's construction or a mythic circus, disconnected from the daily reality of circus life, denigrates the traditional circus whilst simultaneously carving a ‘place’ for it in the social imagination; and how circus people perform their own personal circus mythology, embodying core cultural beliefs. Finally this thesis examines the construction and performance of public and private circus identities, arguing they are integrally linked to circus history and culture, deeply connected to community, and central to the circus sense of belonging. This thesis features the voices, memories, insights and images of the research participants. Circus is a non-literate culture, and too often circus voices are mediated for public consumption. Although this thesis must also mediate, it endeavours to reflect the interviewees' sometimes contradictory, often humorous expression of their life experiences, to give the reader insight into circus people's perceptions of their culture, alongside theoretical reflection and analysis. Traditional circus life is, and always has been, ‘tough as buggery’, and circus people have developed a unique humour, irony, and 'toughness' to deal with the demands of this life. This thesis travels beneath the highly polished and hardened exterior of traditional circus life, to understand the unique nature of circus culture, community and belonging.