Hubert Murray: The Australian Pro-Consul
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket - cloth/board in good condition
Pages: Good
Few figures in the annals of colonial administration loom as large — or remain as fascinating — as Sir Hubert Murray, the Oxford-educated lawyer and boxer who ruled Papua as Lieutenant-Governor for over three decades. Francis West's authoritative biography, Hubert Murray: The Australian Pro-Consul, chronicles the extraordinary life of a man who presided over one of the most remote and complex territories in the British Empire, navigating the treacherous currents of colonial policy, indigenous relations, and the competing ambitions of Australian federal politics with equal measures of iron resolve and paternalistic idealism. Set against the lush, uncharted landscapes of Papua in the early twentieth century, the book presents a vivid portrait of Murray's administration from 1908 to 1940 — a tenure defined by his fierce protection of Papuan land rights and his controversial, yet deeply personal, vision for the territory's future. West brings the measured rigour of a trained historian to his subject, drawing on extensive archival research to construct a nuanced account that neither romanticises nor dismisses the complexities of Murray's legacy. The prose is precise and authoritative, carefully situating Murray within the broader context of Australian imperialism and the global twilight of the colonial era. West does not shy away from the contradictions inherent in a man who was simultaneously a humanitarian reformer and an instrument of imperial power — leaving the reader to wrestle with the enduring question of what it truly means to govern for the good of a people not your own.
Author: Francis West
Format: Hardback
Published: 1968, Oxford University Press
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket - cloth/board in good condition
Pages: Good
Few figures in the annals of colonial administration loom as large — or remain as fascinating — as Sir Hubert Murray, the Oxford-educated lawyer and boxer who ruled Papua as Lieutenant-Governor for over three decades. Francis West's authoritative biography, Hubert Murray: The Australian Pro-Consul, chronicles the extraordinary life of a man who presided over one of the most remote and complex territories in the British Empire, navigating the treacherous currents of colonial policy, indigenous relations, and the competing ambitions of Australian federal politics with equal measures of iron resolve and paternalistic idealism. Set against the lush, uncharted landscapes of Papua in the early twentieth century, the book presents a vivid portrait of Murray's administration from 1908 to 1940 — a tenure defined by his fierce protection of Papuan land rights and his controversial, yet deeply personal, vision for the territory's future. West brings the measured rigour of a trained historian to his subject, drawing on extensive archival research to construct a nuanced account that neither romanticises nor dismisses the complexities of Murray's legacy. The prose is precise and authoritative, carefully situating Murray within the broader context of Australian imperialism and the global twilight of the colonial era. West does not shy away from the contradictions inherent in a man who was simultaneously a humanitarian reformer and an instrument of imperial power — leaving the reader to wrestle with the enduring question of what it truly means to govern for the good of a people not your own.