James Curran's book, Grand Ambition, is an elegant, nuanced, and insightful account of a complicated man, who led Australia in different and, in many ways, much simpler times. Paul Keating has been careful to curate his own history and the remarkable collection of minutes, Cabinet papers, and other original sources must have been a delight, an Aladdin’s cave, for Curran.
Keating’s grand ambition was for an independent Australia, seeking its security in Asia rather than from Asia, shaking off its colonial attachments to Britain by becoming a republic and being more independent from the new imperial hegemon in Washington. According to Keating, all of his successors – including the author of this review – have failed to live up to this grand ambition.
My review of Curran's book, What endures: Paul Keating’s clear-eyed focus on sovereignty, was published in the October issue of Australian Book Review. To read the article in full, please visit the ABR website: https://lnkd.in/gwqqF_wr
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