The Importance of Being Practical: DJ Murphy and Australian Labour History

In a recent review of Ross McMullin's book on the Watson Federal Labor Government of 1904, the then Justice Jeff Shaw of the New South Wales (NSW) Supreme Court remarked that McMullin had 'reinforced his reputation as the pre-eminent historian of the ALP', and was 'a worthy successor to LF Crisp (Chifley's first biographer) and Bede Nairn (the author of "Civilising Capitalism"). Shaw's choice of these two distinguished historians - including the grounds on which he nominates them - is striking. Crisp is singled out for his biography of Ben Chifley, a product of the NSW Branch of the Labor Party, and 'not' for his "The Australian Federal Labour Party: 1901-1951" (1955). Nairn - unlike Crisp, essentially a historian of the NSW Labor party rather than the ALP as a whole - is predictably nominated for "Civilising Capitalism: The Labor Movement in New South Wales 1870-1900".