Menzies and the 'great world struggle'

by Lowe, David

"This is the first comprehensive study of Australia's Cold War in the late 1940s and early 1950s, which captures both the domestic and international dimensions of what Menzies called the 'great world struggle'. David Lowe explores the Cold War from Australia's perspective in relation to three related themes: the threat of a third world war; the imperatives of Australia's rapid economic development; and the on-going need to define Australia's international identity. Lowe finds that through the talk of war and the heat of anti-communism at home, Menzies looms large as the figure who, for reasons more complex than is often suggested, translated the Cold War into an Australian context. Menzies and the 'Great World Struggle' is a lively account of Australia during the first Cold War period and an original explanation of the Australian experience at that time."--Jacket.