The Light on the Hill

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A revised and updated edition of award-winning historian Ross McMullin's acclaimed history of the Australian Labor Party — an entertaining, action-packed, warts-and-all narrative full of illuminating pen-portraits and vivid anecdotes. The story is told through the people who made it. All Labor's prime ministers feature — Watson, Fisher, Hughes, Scullin, Curtin, Chifley, Whitlam, Hawke, Keating, Rudd, Gillard, and Albanese. The sweeping storytelling blends their governments' achievements and tribulations with those of ALP state branches, conflicts over organisation and policy, emotional highs and lows, and intrigue and intimidation behind the scenes. Labor's most spectacular controversies are also examined — three devastating ruptures, the Whitlam government's dismissal, and the fierce Hawke–Keating and Rudd–Gillard–Rudd leadership contests. The Light on the Hill also illuminates the notable families, the