Extract: Nation, Memory, Myth by Steve Vizard
Posted on 11 Jun 2025
How does myth generate meaning for a nation and its citizens? How does a national myth transform into symbolic performances of cultural memory and kinship?
David Kemp's career spans both academia and practical politics. From 1990 to 2004 he was member of the federal parliament, and from 1996 he was a minister in the Howard government overseeing various portfolios including Employment, Education and Environment. Before entering parliament he was Professor of Politics at Monash University, and after leaving parliament Professor and Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
He is a Fellow of the Australia & New Zealand School of Government and board member of the Grattan Institute for Public Policy. He is Chairman of the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House and of the Australian Heritage Council.
He has published seminal books on voting behavior and political analysis, and has written extensively on political liberalism, political ideas and Liberal Party icons such as Robert Menzies and Malcolm Fraser.
Posted on 11 Jun 2025
How does myth generate meaning for a nation and its citizens? How does a national myth transform into symbolic performances of cultural memory and kinship?
Posted on 11 Jun 2025
Why has Antarctica long loomed large in Australian psyche? How did Australia come to see Antarctica as a natural extension of our territory and why…
Posted on 11 Jun 2025
Culture, society and human behaviour have forever been linked to nature. In her thought-provoking book, Lesley Head, geographer and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Emeritus at…
Posted on
We started the year by moving tens of thousands of physical books across state lines, swam through oceans of metadata and updated our back-end systems…
Fri 27 June at 12:00PM
Four Seasons Hotel, 199 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Join Chris Hammer in conversation with ABC's Fran Kelly to discuss the updated edition of The River.
Thu 26 June at 6:00PM
Readings Carlton, 309 Lygon St, Carlton VIC 3053
Join us to hear Steve Vizard in conversation about Nation, Memory, Myth.
Tue 08 July at 6:00PM
Readings Hawthorn, 687 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn VIC 3122
Join us to hear Chris Hammer in conversation about his bestselling classic book, The River.
Thu 10 July at 6:30PM
Burnside Library, 401 Greenhill Road Tusmore, SA 5065
Learn more about author Chris Hammer's prize-winning non-fiction book about the Murray Darling Basin.