Nugget Coombs
A Reforming Life

A 2002 biography of H. C. 'Nugget' Coombs, one of the most influential Australians of the twentieth century.

Tim Rowse (Author)

9780521817837, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 July 2002

430 pages, 8 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.74 kg

'This is an excellent account of an excellent Australian.' Professor Geoffrey Bolton

H. C. Coombs was one of the most influential Australians of the twentieth century. Born in 1906, he is best known as the governor of the Reserve Bank, but the breadth of his activities and his commitment to public life until his death is unsurpassed. Tim Rowse traces Coombs' life from his childhood in Western Australia to his many roles as policy maker, change agent, advocate and adviser. Particularly interested in Coombs as an economist, Tim Rowse shows that a key motif in his life as a public servant was to create an economic rationality among the political elite that was socially integrative and that looked beyond the strictures of economics to environmental sustainability, scientific and artistic creativity. This 2002 book covers Coombs' life from birth to death, providing intriguing insights into the life of one of Australia's most influential people.

Part I. Learning and Teaching: 1. Childhood and youth
2. Schooling
3. Self-possession
4. Busselton
5. Claremont
6. Wheat belt days
7. Night student
8. Finding the words
9. Representing
10. Murdoch
Part II. Liberalism's Crisis: 11. LSE student
12. Politics v. economics
13. The money power and its critics
14. Poor Britain
Part III. The Experts we Need: 15. A vacancy?
16. The economists
17. From people's bank to central bank
18. Sweden and Australia
Part IV. New Orders: 19. Trusting the people
20. Reconstruction and feminism
21. Fighting for 'yes'
22. Soldiers and workers
Part V. Internationalist: 23. Labor's new internationalism
24. The diplomacy of security
25. Success in London
26. Global temptations
27. Geneva
28. Havana
29. An official community
30. Coombs the Keynesian
Part VI. From Labor to Liberal: 31. Chifley's 'family'
32. The commanding heights?
33. The Cold War and CSIRO
34. Vice Chancellor?
35. Reconstructing Papua New Guinea
36. Governor and father
37. Chifley's man
38. Menzies' man?
39. Corporate Elizabethan
Part VII. Other People's Money: 40. Inflation and war
41. Wage earners' democracy
42. Horror budget
43. The Governor muted
44. Stern mentor?
45. Coombs as boss
46. Carrots and sticks
47. Women at the bank
48. A culture of inflation
49. Separation
50. A Melanesian way?
51. Poor man's overdraft
52. Frustrated internationalist
Part VIII. Managing Creativity: 53. Reasonable liberty
54. Visualising Australia
55. Nuclear matters
56. Opera
57. Ballet
58. In search of an audience
59. Re-designing Australia
Part IX. Labor's Second Chance: 60. Retirement
61. Whitlam conscripts Coombs
62. Trade reform
63. Two cultural constituencies
64. Wages and taxes
Part X. Rethink: 65. The stuffed owl of Minerva
66. Nature and human nature
67. Economies and communities
68. Losing the master key
69. The responsive public servant
Part XI. Elite Outrider: 70. Torres Strait
71. Conservation and Aborigines
72. Bapa Dhumbul
Conclusion: histories nostalgic and hopeful.

Subject Areas: Banking [KFFK], Economic history [KCZ], Economics [KC], Politics & government [JP], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], Australasian & Pacific history [HBJM], Biography: general [BG]