The Lucky Country: The Classic Study Of Australia In The Sixties
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: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few books have shaped a nation's self-image as profoundly as The Lucky Country, Donald Horne's incisive and often uncomfortable portrait of Australia in the 1960s. With the sharp eye of a cultural critic and the wit of a seasoned journalist, Horne dissects Australian society — its politics, business culture, class structures, and national identity — arguing that Australia's prosperity owed less to visionary leadership or intellectual ingenuity than to sheer good fortune and abundant natural resources. Written at a time of rapid social change, the book sparked a national conversation that has never truly ended, cementing its place as one of the most important works of Australian social commentary ever published. Horne's prose is direct, polemical, and bracingly honest, combining rigorous observation with a dry, sardonic tone that refuses to let complacency go unchallenged. He presents a nation at a crossroads — wealthy yet intellectually timid, stable yet resistant to the bold reform he believed was urgently needed. Though the phrase the lucky country has since been misappropriated as a term of patriotic pride, Horne's original intent was deeply critical, a warning wrapped in irony. Decades after its first publication, his portrait of Australian mediocrity, opportunity, and potential remains as relevant as ever — a mirror held up to a nation still deciding what it wants to become.
Author: Donald Horne
Format: Paperback
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few books have shaped a nation's self-image as profoundly as The Lucky Country, Donald Horne's incisive and often uncomfortable portrait of Australia in the 1960s. With the sharp eye of a cultural critic and the wit of a seasoned journalist, Horne dissects Australian society — its politics, business culture, class structures, and national identity — arguing that Australia's prosperity owed less to visionary leadership or intellectual ingenuity than to sheer good fortune and abundant natural resources. Written at a time of rapid social change, the book sparked a national conversation that has never truly ended, cementing its place as one of the most important works of Australian social commentary ever published. Horne's prose is direct, polemical, and bracingly honest, combining rigorous observation with a dry, sardonic tone that refuses to let complacency go unchallenged. He presents a nation at a crossroads — wealthy yet intellectually timid, stable yet resistant to the bold reform he believed was urgently needed. Though the phrase the lucky country has since been misappropriated as a term of patriotic pride, Horne's original intent was deeply critical, a warning wrapped in irony. Decades after its first publication, his portrait of Australian mediocrity, opportunity, and potential remains as relevant as ever — a mirror held up to a nation still deciding what it wants to become.