Governing Prosperity
Social Change and Social Analysis in Australia in the 1950s

This book offers a fresh and challenging interpretation of the 1950s in Australia.

Nicholas Brown (Author)

9780521477321, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 1 January 1995

312 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

The 1950s' undeniable prosperity has become synonymous with conservatism, and inertia seen as its hallmark. This book offers a fresh and challenging interpretation of the 1950s in Australia. Nicholas Brown presents the decade as a time of great change, brought about by affluence. Society became increasingly complex, mass consumption reached new heights and Australia's role in the world and the region was re-cast. The book looks at the ways in which those overseeing society responded to these post-war changes; in short, how they governed prosperity. A history of ideas as well as cultural, intellectual and institutional history, Governing Prosperity is a major reassessment of the 1950s. It will be particularly important for its analysis of the significance of the decade in the development of Australian society.

List of figures and tables
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. A part of Asia
2. 'A test of our quality as a nation'
3. The milk bar economy
4. Decentralisation and the organisation of life
5. Concepts of self and society
6. 'A community with a climate of its own'
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], Australasian & Pacific history [HBJM]