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Peter Golding, Black Jack McEwen: Political Gladiator (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1996), 374 pp., $45.00, ISBN 0 522 84718 8.
Sir John McEwen was a powerful force in Australian politics for a long time, and had his share of luck, good and ill. He was a minister continuously from 1949 until his retirement in 1971, but he might have been the leader of his party in the 1930s, and thereafter played an even more dominant role. In my judgment he was the most successful federal minister, all things considered, in the second half of this century. He did daring and important things, especially securing a trade treaty with Japan in the 1950s, which shaped Australia thereafter, for its good. He moved his thinking from free trade towards protection, again for the country's good (a provocative judgment, I accept), and thus attracted strong criticism not only from within his party but from across politics and government. In many respects...