John Winston Howard
The Biography
In John Winston Howard, a frank and engrossing portrait of the Prime Minister, Wayne Errington and Peter van Onselen contend that John Howard is the first professional politician the country has seen, who has left a deep and lasting impact on modern politics, government and the country.
Awards
Shortlised for the 2008 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards in the Literary Work Advancing Public Debate (Harry Williams Award) category
Opinion
"This is not, cannot be, the definitive biography of John Howard. But it joins Tony Parkinson's (2000) study of Jeff Kennett as one of the best contemporary studies of an Australian conservative politician. In the way they paint the private man and the politician, the authors add a dimension to our understanding of a prime minister whose obvious and endless obsession with winning and holding office is all we have kown of him. Their description of his private life presents Howard, at least in part, as the ordinary bloke he has worked so hard to appear to be." Stephen Matchett, Weekend Australian, 11/08/2007
"Want to get an idea of what ambitious politicians go through when they set out to climb the greasy pole of power - and what they have to do to stay at the top? Want to know what mean and tricky really means? If so, this unauthorised biography is compulsory reading. [. . .] A real page-turner . . . and it's all true."
South Coast Register, 08/08/2007
About this Title
In 1996, when John Howard wrested the prime ministership from Paul Keating, many people wrote off his election win as an aberration.
More than ten years later, he is on the cusp of leading the Liberal Party into another election.
John Winston Howard is a frank and engrossing portrait of the Prime Minister. For the first time ever, in unprecedented and extensive interviews conducted by Wayne Errington and Peter van Onselen with Howard's family, friends, political supporters and detractors, we get a rare insight into the man and the government he runs. The result is a portrait of how Team Howard operates, and why it has been so successful.
Errington and van Onselen contend that Howard is the first professional politician the country has seen, and assess the impact he has made on modern politics, government and the country.
John Winston Howard is a revealing study of the nature of modern politics. Crucially, it offers an insightful understanding of the John Howard who lies-and is mostly missed-between the public vitriol and the ungainly praise that passes as analysis.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Earlwood
2. Beyond the suburbs
3. Getting noticed
4. Dad would have been proud
5. The loyal deputy
6. 'Are you sure we wanted this?'
7. Mr 18 Per Cent
8. Wilderness to redemption
9. The pragmatist
10. The Prime Minister we had to have
11. The turning point
12. Howard's way
13. Cutting down Latham
14. A bridge too far?
The Verdict
Sources
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Wayne Errington is Lecturer in Political Science at the Australian National University. Peter van Onselen is Associate Professor in Politics and Government at Edith Cowan University. They have written extensively together about Australian politics in newspaper opinion pages across the country: The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Courier Mail, The Canberra Times, The Daily Telegraph, The West Australian and The Sunday Times.
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