War On The Waterfront: Menzies, Japan And The Pig-Iron Dispute
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
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In the turbulent years leading up to World War II, a single confrontation on the Australian docks ignited a firestorm of political controversy that would reverberate through the decades — War on the Waterfront: Menzies, Japan and the Pig-iron Dispute chronicles the remarkable true story of Australian waterside workers who, in 1938, refused to load pig-iron aboard the Japanese vessel SS Dalfram, defying both their own government and the rising tide of appeasement that gripped the Western world. At the heart of the conflict stands Robert Menzies, then Attorney-General and soon to be Prime Minister, whose heavy-handed attempts to compel the wharfies earned him the enduring nickname Pig-iron Bob — a moniker that would haunt his political legacy for years to come. Rupert Lockwood's meticulously researched account sets this pivotal industrial dispute against the sweeping backdrop of pre-war geopolitics, Japanese imperial aggression, and the fierce solidarity of the Australian labour movement. Drawing on first-hand accounts, archival documents, and a journalist's keen instinct for narrative, Lockwood constructs a gripping portrait of ordinary working men standing on the right side of history, long before governments were willing to acknowledge the threat posed by Imperial Japan. The book is a vital contribution to Australian political and labour history, illuminating the profound tensions between economic pragmatism, national security, and the moral courage of the working class. For anyone seeking to understand the social and political fault lines that shaped modern Australia, this account of the Dalfram Dispute leaves a question ringing in the air: when governments fail to act with conscience, who is left to draw the line?
Author: Rupert Lockwood
Format: Paperback
Published: 1987, Hale & Iremonger.
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In the turbulent years leading up to World War II, a single confrontation on the Australian docks ignited a firestorm of political controversy that would reverberate through the decades — War on the Waterfront: Menzies, Japan and the Pig-iron Dispute chronicles the remarkable true story of Australian waterside workers who, in 1938, refused to load pig-iron aboard the Japanese vessel SS Dalfram, defying both their own government and the rising tide of appeasement that gripped the Western world. At the heart of the conflict stands Robert Menzies, then Attorney-General and soon to be Prime Minister, whose heavy-handed attempts to compel the wharfies earned him the enduring nickname Pig-iron Bob — a moniker that would haunt his political legacy for years to come. Rupert Lockwood's meticulously researched account sets this pivotal industrial dispute against the sweeping backdrop of pre-war geopolitics, Japanese imperial aggression, and the fierce solidarity of the Australian labour movement. Drawing on first-hand accounts, archival documents, and a journalist's keen instinct for narrative, Lockwood constructs a gripping portrait of ordinary working men standing on the right side of history, long before governments were willing to acknowledge the threat posed by Imperial Japan. The book is a vital contribution to Australian political and labour history, illuminating the profound tensions between economic pragmatism, national security, and the moral courage of the working class. For anyone seeking to understand the social and political fault lines that shaped modern Australia, this account of the Dalfram Dispute leaves a question ringing in the air: when governments fail to act with conscience, who is left to draw the line?