180: THE YEARS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD, AGAIN
ISBN 0 9750837 7 5
SPRING 2005
published 23 September 2005

For Manning Clark, the postwar years of conservative rule were “the years of unleavened bread”, a time of overarching spiritual and cultural emptiness. “The great Australian dream of social equality and mateship”, Clark wrote, “was bleeding to death in the jungles and paddy fields of Vietnam.” At the same time, Clark was able to find hope and inspiration in new Australian art. In this issue of Overland, the pre-eminent journal of Australian culture and cultural politics, editor Nathan Hollier draws parallels between the social environments of Menzies and Howard.

Elsewhere SEAN SCALMER examines Mark Latham’s largely unrequited search for the aspirational voter. BRIAN MARTIN looks at the recent experience of Andrew Wilkie and other high-profile ‘whistleblowers’ and LES THOMAS does what he can to correct government and media portrayals of his brother, ‘Jihad Jack’ Thomas, as a terrorist.

Taking a more historical perspective, PETER HOLDING writes on the legacy of the Whitlam government. ARNOLD ZABLE reflects on GWENDA TAVAN’S recent important study of the long slow death of the white Australia policy, and Tavan discusses the personal bases of that book with VIN D’CRUZ. JESSICA RASCHKE tells of the rise and fall of ‘multicultural’ Australian literature, a product and a casualty of ongoing ‘culture wars’.

Continuing Overland’s series on high-profile public intellectuals and public debates, CLINTON FERNANDES offers an insightful account of the life, work and reputation of the much-maligned NOAM CHOMSKY, and TIM BATTIN reveals the impact of right-wing economic ideas on the thinking of left-leaning intellectuals.

This issue also includes moving and evocative tributes to SHELTON LEA, a long-standing friend of Overland and a member of the bohemian Heide circle, who died on 13 May 2005.

Plus new fiction by JESSICA WHITE and MICHAEL WILDING; new poetry by JELTJE and PETER BAKOWSKI; and Overland’s famously fearless reviews section.

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