HASLUCK LIBRARY
Sir Paul Hasluck Books
The Chance of Politics
A posthumous collection of Paul Hasluck's private notebooks of portraits of people he knew in Canberra with a foreword by Nicholas Hasluck, published by Text Publishing in 1997. 'A book of rare insight and remarkable frankness. Hasluck's portraits will become Classics.' Paul Kelly
by Paul Hasluck
Publication Details:
Text Publishing, 1997
Paperback 228 pp
ISBN: 1 875847 37 5
Cover notes:
"Paul Hasluck is a major figure in postwar Australian politics. He entered Parliament in 1949 and retired as Governor-General in 1974. As a senior Liberal Cabinet minister under Sir Robert Menzies, he was for several decades at the centre of power.
After Hasluck's death in 1993 his son Nicholas, himself a well-known writer, read the extraordinary manuscript on which The Chance of Politics is based. Drawn from Hasluck's private notebooks, it provides intimate portraits of people he knew in Canberra: among them Evatt, Casey, Barwick, Calwell, McEwen, McMahon, Whitlam and Fraser. There is also an enthralling account of events following the death of Harold Holt when John Gorton defeated Hasluck in a ballot to decide the new prime minister.
Vivid, honest and wise. The Chance of Politics is more than a brilliant work of biography or an informal history of a fascinating era. In describing the struggles for power, the clashes of will and the trade-offs between leadership and expedience, Paul Hasluck takes us to the heart of politics and political character."