Menzies, the British Commonwealth and the Nation's Inheritance

Why did Australia shed its sense of 'Britishness', and how does its legacy resonate in the nation we know today?

Robert Menzies was famously British to the bootstraps, yet his prime ministership saw the sun gradually set on the centrality of the British Commonwealth to Australian national life. From the failures of the Singapore Strategy and Sterling Crisis to Britain's withdrawal East of Suez and turn towards Europe, the defence and economic ties that bound Australia to the Mother Country were severed over the decades of the mid-twentieth century. Paradoxically, a new multi-racial and Crown-less Commonwealth became the main conduit through which Australia first learned to cope with an epoch of decolonisation and anti-discrimination.

The first in a three-volume series on the global forces that shaped the nation, this collection of essays examines what Australia's 'Britishness' actually meant, exploring how it shaped its political, legal and sporting cultures, economy, military and identity. It ponders whether Australia made a conscious decision to seize its independence, or had a comforting sense of dependence forcibly taken away.

Contributors to this volume include Daniel Brettig, Paul Brown, Selwyn Cornish, Michael de Percy, Martin Farr, David Furse-Roberts, Stewart Gill, John Hawkins, Andrew Kemp, Kit Kowol, Peter Kurti, David Lee, Mark Lunney, Alex McDermott, Lucas McLennan, Greg Melleuish, Teesta Prakash, Wayne Reynolds, Charles Richardson, Lee Rippon, Tim Rowse, Eliezer Rubenstein Sturgess, Sue Thompson and Josh Woodward.