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About this book
'I am sir [sure] you will act as human bean,' wrote one distressed pensioner to Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1953, pleading for assistance. Robert Menzies received 22,000 letters during his record-breaking 1949-1966 second term as Australian Prime Minister. From war veterans, widows, and political leaders to school students and homespun philosophers. Ordinary citizens sent their congratulations and grievances and commented on speeches they had heard on radio. They lectured him, quoted Shakespeare and the Bible at him, and sent advice on how to eliminate the rabbit problem. In
Dear Prime Minister, Menzies' fabled 'Forgotten People' write back. Revealed here for the first time, the letters respond to the royal visit of 1954, Communism, Australia's British connection, and the dire poverty of aged pensioners. For many writers, these were not post-war boom years, but a time of anxiety and conflict, punctuated by fears of war, another Great Depression, or a nuclear Armageddon. Dear Prime Minister is a fascinating insight into the concerns, assumptions, and political beliefs of 1950s and 1960s Australians.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Dear Prime Minister by Martyn Lyons in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Australian & Oceanian History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Halftitle Page
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 ‘I want so much to let you know how we ordinary folk feel’: Menzies’ Forgotten People
- 2 ‘Dear Mr Ming’: The profile of the ordinary writer
- 3 ‘You are the only saviour of the country’: Fan mail and congratulations
- 4 ‘If you want anything done, go to the top’: The personal hotline
- 5 ‘Please don’t think I’m a crackpot’: The rhetoric of apology
- 6 ‘I am sir [sure] you will act as human bean’: The cry of the distressed pensioner
- 7 ‘Much as I love our little Queen, I think she needs a spanking’: Britain and the Empire
- 8 ‘A Commonwealth Citizen in every woodpile’: Immigration and the White Australia Policy
- 9 ‘Mr Khrushchev is planning something big’: The changing face of anti-communism
- 10 ‘People will weep tears of blood’: Angry letters and political protest
- 11 ‘The Kingdom of God is nigh’: Paranoid letters
- 12 Structures of belief
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index