{"product_id":"2026200016466-secondhand-bolte-by-bolte","title":"Bolte By Bolte","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFew figures in Australian political history loom as large or as defiantly as Sir Henry Bolte, and Bolte by Bolte presents the man himself in his own unmistakable voice. Authored by journalist Tom Prior, this biography draws on extensive personal interviews and encounters to construct an intimate portrait of Victoria's longest-serving Premier — a plain-speaking, deeply conservative country squire who dominated state politics from 1955 to 1972 with iron conviction and a sharp, often earthy wit. The narrative chronicles Bolte's rise from the pastoral heartlands of Victoria to the corridors of Spring Street power, capturing his bruising battles with trade unions, his staunch defence of capital punishment, and his unashamedly agrarian vision for a modernising Australia.\n\nPrior's approach is less hagiography than frank conversation, allowing Bolte's contradictions — the charming larrikin and the unbending ideologue — to emerge with compelling clarity. The work sits firmly within the tradition of Australian political biography that prizes directness over deference, offering readers not a sanitised statesman but a flesh-and-blood politician shaped by the Victorian countryside and hardened by decades of partisan combat. For anyone seeking to understand the conservative strain that has run through Australian public life, this candid self-portrait raises a question that lingers long after the final page: was Bolte a relic of a vanishing Australia, or its most honest reflection?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49336818598107,"sku":"2026200016466-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/8d4a6b39-6c56-470b-9714-c0713b04011d.png?v=1789958820","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200016466-secondhand-bolte-by-bolte","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}