The Hawke memoirs [Hardcover] Hawke Bob

Bob Hawke — Rhodes Scholar, trade union leader, beer-skolling world record holder, and Australia's longest-serving Labor Prime Minister. This is his story, told in his own words. From working-class roots to Oxford, from the ACTU presidency to The Lodge, Hawke charts his rise through Australian politics with the swagger and candour you'd expect. He doesn't shy away from the backroom deals, the Keating rivalry, or the personal cost of power. The reforms — Medicare, superannuation, floating the dollar, the Prices and Income Accord — are laid out alongside the human drama: ambition, betrayal, ego, compromise. Whether you admire him or not, Hawke shaped modern Australia more than almost anyone else in the late 20th century. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how Australia works, or how a larrikin became a statesman without losing the larrikin entirely.