RADICAL SYDNEY DIARY
An ongoing account of the life of a book, 2010-2021
by
Rowan Cahill & Terry Irving
2010
June Radical Sydney was launched during June 2010, beginning in Wollongong (NSW) where Arthur Rorris, Secretary of the South Coast Labour Council, did the honours. This was followed by launches in Sydney and Melbourne. By the end of the month the book was listed globally on many of the world's bookselling catalogues.
Prior to the launches the authors were interviewed by James Valentine on his afternoon radio show on 702 ABC (Sydney); this was a pleasant, relaxed half-hour discussion of the book, and radical history. First cab off the rank regarding publicity and comment was veteran Sydney journalist John Huxley; on May 29 he mentioned Radical Sydney in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, describing the book as “racily written” and arguably the best of a bunch of forthcoming books about the less-known stories of Sydney’s past. He was followed in The Australian (June 5) by prominent historian Ross Fitzgerald who described Radical Sydney as “excellent….interesting, revealing and crispily written”. On the website of the Better Read Than Dead Bookstore (Newtown, Sydney), Chris awarded the book “five out of five”.
The Maritime Union of Australia featured Radical Sydney on its website (June 17), drawing attention to the book's empathetic treatment of maritime workers and their unions; the June 22 (2010) issue of the Daily Telegraph (Sydney) featured an edited extract from the book on its regular 'History Page'. In the NSW Legislative Council, June 23, the Hon. Ian West MLC cited and drew from Radical Sydney during an address on the history of fascism in Australia and on the fragility of our democratic freedoms.
The three launches were successful events and generated exciting sales, especially the gleebooks (Sydney) event which involved an audience of some 130 people, with Lee Rhiannon MLC (Greens) guest speaker; the venue was packed, standing room only. The Melbourne launch took the format of a discussion of the topic ‘Writing Radical History’; in this the authors were joined by Overland editor Jeff Sparrow (co-author of the two Radical Melbourne books) and veteran labour historian Peter Love. An enthusiastic audience in the Trades Hall venue ensured a lively evening of comment and debate on what was otherwise a very cold Melbourne night. A few days earlier (15 June) Jeff had cited Radical Sydney, over on the New Matilda website, in defence of literary journals and the communal nature of reading.
Community radio showed interest in Radical Sydney, with Rowan doing a half-hour interview about the book on Highland FM (NSW) on 31 May, and Terry doing a similar gig on 3CR Melbourne, June 30.
July
Pleasing reviews of Radical Sydney were published in the Sydney Morning Herald, July 10-11 (Mandy Sayer), and Australian Book Review, Number 323 (Don Anderson). Stephen Matchett in the Weekend Australian (July 3-4) wrote that if you agreed with the editorialising by Irving and Cahill, then Radical Sydney would be “a delight’. In the rural press, veteran journalist Mac Cott gave the book a good write up in his widely read column “Out of Context’ in the Southern Highlands News, July 9.
A review by Peter Mac in the Communist Party of Australia’s newspaper The Guardian (21 July) yearned for a more comprehensive history of radicalism than the one on offer in our selective Radical Sydney, but concluded with recognition of the book’s importance and recommended it as “well worth reading” (Peter Mac, 21 July). On this matter of ‘selectivity’, Terry and I addressed the Sydney Branch of the Australian Society of Archivists (July 14) and discussed the subjective factors that influenced our shaping of Radical Sydney.
Especially pleasing was the ongoing acquisition of Radical Sydney by libraries during the month (tracked by the National Library of Australia’s Trove). Many of these libraries are public ones, as distinct from academic/specialist libraries, suggesting the book is attracting a wide audience. During our writing of Radical Sydney Terry and I endeavoured to write in way that did not compromise historical accuracy or scholarly standards, and was accessible to non-specialist audiences. By the end of the month our book was amongst 157 others nominated for the prestigious CAL Waverley Library Literature Award, aka "The Nib" (results later this year).
August
Radical Sydney entered the gleebooks non-fiction Bestseller List for August; ten books, with Radical Sydney at number three spot. More positive reviews: in Education, journal of the NSW Teachers Federation (Desmond Moore); Socialist Alternative (Sarah Schmidt); Qantas The Australian Way, Qantas’ in-flight journal (Paul Robinson). Rowan did another community radio gig -- a 10 minute spot on Highlands FM107.1 with broadcaster John Sider. The book is variously the subject of blogger and twitter comment. Coming through strongly in comments and reviews is the sense that Radical Sydney is helping people relate to the space/entity that is Sydney, one they feel disenfranchised from when imagined otherwise in capitalist/CBD/tourist guises. A lengthy report of our July talks to the NSW Branch of the Australian Society of Archivists was published in the August issue of the archivists' newsletter.
September
Terry and Rowan each gave Radical Sydney related talks during History Week (on September 9), respectively on the political role of the crowd in Sydney's history since the 1840s; and on industrial relations in the AIF during World War 1, and fascist sympathies in Sydney between the two World Wars. Some 50 people attended the session organised by the Sydney Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, held in Sydney's Trades Hall. A small, welcome, review of Radical Sydney by Johanna Leggatt appeared in the Sun-Herald newspaper (12 September). The first, and pleasing, scholarly review of the book, by Tony Smith, was published in the September issue of the Australian Review of Public Affairs. Very pleasing also to note the National Library's Trove statistics showing the burgeoning purchase of Radical Sydney by the nation's public and tertiary libraries. Anecdotal evidence to hand indicates the book is already being used in tertiary undergraduate history courses.
October
Radical Sydney is walking off the shelves. And is back on the gleebooks non-fiction Bestseller List at Number 3. With only a few copies remaining in the publisher’s warehouse, the decision has been made to keep the book in print; a 'Print On Demand (POD)' arrangement is now in place. Leading question: what is the book’s appeal? Maybe this: as John Keene argues (Australian Literary Review, October 6), internationally and locally the social democratic ideal of a socially just society in which extremes of wealth and poverty are curbed has been undermined by machine politics, short-term opportunism, and corruption; as Rod Cavalier demonstrates (in Power Crisis: The Self-Destruction of a State Labor Party, Cambridge University Press, October 2010), the ALP (in NSW, but arguably nationally), has been captured by machine men and women, lost its social democratic vision and mission, and severed its roots with local party members. Radical Sydney is an antidote to the pessimism generated by this depressing state of affairs. The book is testament to the age-old notion that people can take the struggle for social justice and just causes into their own hands; individually, preferably collectively, they can take action against, confront, and often defeat, the hydra of social injustice, greed, corruption, state violence. Radical Sydney is a timely reminder and affirmation that we don’t have to delegate democratic power and responsibility to representative government and a party political system, one currently failing all but those who lead and staff it, and those who grease its oily wheels.
Library sales continue to be chalked up, with some librarians rating the book as 'hot'. Write-ups and reviews in Lloyd's List Daily Commercial News (Jim Wilson), Maritime Workers' Journal, and a significant scholarly review in The Queensland Journal of Labour History, September 2010 (Janis Bailey). Visits to our Blog are increasing; 440 viewings this month, with the two radical history essays drawing most interest. Overseas interest apparent in the Blog visits.
November
While Radical Sydney did not get shortlisted for the CAL/Waverley Literature Award (November 3), as authors and historians we found the experience of being nominated new and satisfying. Pleasing to read a detailed account of our Radical Sydney talks during History Week reported by Terri McCormack in the latest issue of Phanfare, Newsletter of the Professional Historians' Association (NSW). According to McCormack, Irving and Cahill are attempting to redress an imbalance in Australian historiography and "can only enrich and enhance the history that seemed so boring to many of us in our school years". Very positive reviews were published in the Sydney University Alumni Magazine (SAM), by Diana Simmonds, and in Labour History, by Jeff Sparrow. On the last day of the month we spoke in Newtown (Sydney) at a meeting organised by the local Socialist Alternative branch. Terry talked about the radicalism of crowds in Sydney's history and the tenacious, largely forgotten, radical internationalist Paul Freeman; Rowan spoke about the 1916 military strike and industrial relations in the AIF during World War 1. It was an enjoyable evening of engagement with some sixty, mainly young, radicals. Significant blog traffic continues; libraries continue to purchase the book.
December
Twitter comment (December 15) rates Radical Sydney one of the best reads of 2010; thank you Andrew from the UNSW Bookshop. Another review of our book was published, in the latest issue of Hummer (Volume 6, No. 2, 2010), Journal of the Sydney Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History. This issue also republished Terry’s essay “Rediscovering Radical History” (originally posted on this blog -- see side panel). We caught up with A Few Right Thinking Men (Pantera Press, 2010) by Sulari Gentill, a crime fiction involving the secret-army world of violent anti-communism and pro-fascism in Sydney between the two world wars. It is good to see this territory being explored by a novelist as part of the Australian political landscape; a far cry from the Cold War days when the critic/poet A. D. Hope lambasted D. H. Lawrence’s secret-army novel Kangaroo (1923) for having imposed alien politics (i.e. incipient Italian fascism) on Australian society and culture, as though Australia had never developed significant home-grown fascist tendencies. Thanks are due here to the efforts over time of researchers like Keith Amos, Michael Cathcart, Robert Darroch, Richard Hall, Humphrey McQueen, Andrew Moore for their work in correcting this false impression and opening Australia’s secret-army history to investigation and analysis. Late December the Sydney Morning Herald reported plans to demolish the iconic Point Piper (Sydney) mansion ‘Craig-y-Mor’. The article listed some former residents/owners-- the consul-general of Japan, stevedoring company owner Chris Corrigan, stockbroker Rene Rivkin. Not mentioned, but detailed in Chapter 32 of Radical Sydney, was the mansion’s role during the 1930s through to the eve of the bombing of Pearl Harbour, as a hub for Japanese intelligence activity and as a meeting place for well-heeled pro-Japanese Australian sympathisers and potential collaborators.
2011
January-February
Bookshops continue to order Radical Sydney, including outfits that have not previously ordered, and the book continues to sell; not in huge numbers, but enough to indicate word of the book is spreading, possibly finding an audience amongst people jaded by the parlous state of what passes for politics and democracy these days. Amongst the bookshops ordering, it is pleasing to note a number of small bookshops located well outside the Sydney metropolitan area. Nationally, libraries continue to add Radical Sydney to their shelves; our blog continues to be visited in significant numbers; and as the university year begins around the nation, we note the appearance of our book on tertiary reading lists and in course outlines. Another favourable review of the book has been published—by Ingeborg van Teeseling in Antipodes, Journal of the American Association of Australian Literary Studies (Volume 24, Issue Number 2, December 2010, pp. 214-215), bringing the number of reviews to date to seventeen. We hear that more are in the pipeline, and know of at least two more reviews in publications due for release in the next few weeks. Looking further ahead, it appears likely that we will be giving a talk in Sydney during Writers’ Week in May; details will be available once these are confirmed.
March-April
Interest in Radical Sydney continues; visits to this blog remain at a healthy level, way better than if we had confined ourselves to a paper-based process. Terry's essay 'Rediscovering Radical History' in particular is being widely downloaded/read. Libraries continue to list our book in their catalogues, most recently Cornell University in the US, bringing the total of US libraries listing our book to twenty-seven. It is pleasing also to note manifestations of, and interest in, the writing and practice of radical history popping up locally. We've just noticed the erudite ruminations of Robert Hodder online. His 2009 doctoral dissertation Radical Tasmania: Rebellion, Reaction and Resistance (Ballarat University) is a detailed discussion of the whole idea of radical history; follow this link to access his foray--browse by author. At the University of Newcastle, researchers have recently launched a project to unearth the radical past and present of this regional city and the Hunter Region. Explore aspects of this project at its dedicated website Radical Newcastle.
Terry and Rowan both have recently published radical history related articles in Illawarra Unity, Journal of the Illawarra Branch of the ASSLH: 'Never Neutral' (Cahill) is a republication of the blog essay of the same title; 'A Radical History Book: How We Came to Write It' (Irving) is totally new. The Sydney Writers' Festival programme has been published and we are scheduled for a free session organised by the Historic Houses Trust on Friday, May 20, 1.00pm-2.00pm, at The Mint (Sydney); Robbie Buck (702 ABC Evenings) will talk with us, along with Tony Moore, author of Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788-1868.
New, and pleasing, reviews of Radical Sydney have been published recently in Illawarra Unity, Volume 10, Issue 1, 2010 (Maurie Mulheron); the Australian Journal of Politics and History, Volume 57, No. 1, March 2011 (Jeff Rickertt); the Journal of Industrial Relations, Volume 53, No. 1, March 2011 (Chris Gambian). These bring the total number of reviews of the book to twenty.
On the strength of Radical Sydney's appearance at the Sydney Writers' Festival, a story about the book and authors featured for a week (from 8 April) on the University of Wollongong's homepage; this in turn resulted in Rowan being interviewed about the book on ABC Radio, Illawarra.
May-June
Radical Sydney, as a published book, is now a year old. Sales continue; libraries continue to catalogue it; blog visits continue. The book has also been nominated for the NSW Premier’s History Award, and the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History. In May, Irving and Cahill spoke at The Mint (Sydney) during the Sydney Writers' Festival, at an event organised by the Historic Houses Trust, NSW. Fellow participants were Robbie Buck (ABC, Evenings 702), and Tony Moore, author of Death or Liberty (Murdoch Books, 2010). It was full house in a pleasant venue, and well organised by the Trust’s Julie Ryan. After the event, the authors signed copies of Radical Sydney. A few days before the talk, Irving was interviewed about the book, and radical history, by community radio 2SER. Future talks by the authors are in the pipeline.
July-August
Radical Sydney received a good write-up in a feature article about Rowan in the weekend edition of the Illawarra Mercury, July 9-10, 2011 (Jodie Duffy, “Radical Thinking”, pp. 10-11). The book became an ebook aimed at the US and UK markets in August. Terry and Rowan spoke about the book at a Sydney function organised by the NSW Teachers Federation Retired Teachers Association (RTA) on August 12. Thirty or so people attended the talk on a wet, grey day, and the presentation was warmly received. Amongst those present were people who had read and enjoyed the book; others expressed interest in seeking out a copy. According to reports, the Federation library’s copy of the book is well borrowed. A tradition with the RTA is that a speaker’s fee is made, then donated to a charity of the speaker’s choice; Rowan and Terry directed theirs to the direct action Sea Shepherd environmental/conservation organisation.
To date, and in less than a year since publication, Radical Sydney has been cited or mentioned in at least four PhD theses available online. It seems scholars have been drawn to the book for a number of reasons: it deals with a vast amount of material over a long stretch of time, making this available and accessible; it constructs a narrative with this diversity, establishing links and continuities with what, in conservative hands, tends to be regarded as isolated or aberrant political/social behaviour; and it does all this in a forthright manner which pulls few punches.
September
The authors continued to develop their individual radical biographical projects: Terry, on V.G. Childe (1892-1957), socialist scholar and activist; Rowan, on Rupert Lockwood (1908-1997), Left journalist and socialist intellectual. On September 17, Rowan chaired a session at the 12th National Labour History Conference in Canberra, and distributed Radical Sydney flyers; it was pleasing to note that Radical Sydney was discussed and mentioned in a couple of scholarly Conference papers. The session Rowan chaired was devoted to the innovative and radical Australian Green Bans movement of the 1970s. Historian Verity Burgmann spoke on the lessons to be learned from that struggle, and related these to social-movement unionism; pioneer Green Bans veteran Jack Mundey reflected on his experiences of the 1970s, and on the need for a vision of the future which combines socialism and ecology. A screening of the moving and radical documentary Rocking the Foundations (1985), by filmmaker Pat Fiske, followed. At the end of the session there was spontaneous applause, and many in the large audience left with tears in their eyes, such was its overall emotional/intellectual impact. Later that day, Rowan was interviewed and taped by political-folk historian Mark Gregory for an ABC radio programme Mark is making on convict poet Frances MacNamara, one of the characters in Radical Sydney. Another Radical Sydney gig confirmed; the authors will be speaking in the Writers Tent (organised by the Better Read Than Dead bookstore, Newtown) during the Newtown Festival on 13 November 2011.
October-December
The blog continues to be visited, and book sales are still ticking over. We did three gigs during the period. Terry and Rowan did a Writer’s Tent session, organised by the Better Read Than Dead Bookstore, at the legendary Newtown Festival; they signed copies of Radical Sydney afterwards. Apparently the book is destined for quite a few Christmas stockings. Rowan was guest speaker at the Eureka Stockade Commemoration Dinner in Sydney (December 2); he gave a demonstration of radical history with his account of the turbulence of the 1890s, linked to his account of the politics behind Banjo Patterson’s poem/song Waltzing Matilda. On Saturday December 10, Terry was in action at “The Occupy Sydney Free School” in Sydney’s Martin Place; he linked the radicalism of today with the histories told in Radical Sydney. On another front it was good to see use made of Radical Sydney in the groundbreaking essay by young historian Dr. Nathan Wise (University of New England) published in Labour History (Number 101, November 2011). The essay examines the multiplicity of ways in which rank and file Australian soldiers during World War 1 employed industrial relations techniques to address their many grievances. On yet another front, it is pleasing to see that a Braille edition of Radical Sydney has just been published by Vision Australia Information Library Service (Melbourne 2011). Very pleasing to note the piece about this blog and the essays by Cahill, McQueen, Irving, in the December issue of Recorder, newsletter of the Melbourne branch ASSLH; thank you Julie Kimber .
End of year, and time for reflection. Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' is 'The Protester', reference to the many people globally who took to the streets and cyberspace during 2011, railing against governments of all kinds, dictatorial and democratic, and in the process variously bringing down governments, changing political agendas, changing public debate. Radical Sydney was conceived in the early years of the new century, before mass protest was on the horizon, and when repression of a military, political, cultural kind was loosed upon the world by the secular hydra of anti-terrorism. Published at the end of the first decade of the new century, Radical Sydney meshes neatly with the 'protest' spirit of the times.
End of year, and time for reflection. Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' is 'The Protester', reference to the many people globally who took to the streets and cyberspace during 2011, railing against governments of all kinds, dictatorial and democratic, and in the process variously bringing down governments, changing political agendas, changing public debate. Radical Sydney was conceived in the early years of the new century, before mass protest was on the horizon, and when repression of a military, political, cultural kind was loosed upon the world by the secular hydra of anti-terrorism. Published at the end of the first decade of the new century, Radical Sydney meshes neatly with the 'protest' spirit of the times.
2012
January-February
According to statistics regarding online visits, our blog continues to draw interest, especially the essay pages--Terry's essay in particular; so too Joan Hume's "Disability and History" essay. The recently added "Ruminations" page is also proving a hit. In bookshops randomly visited during wanderings, we have noted POD copies of Radical Sydney on shelves, indicative of continuing demand for the book almost two-years since publication. During February, the twenty-first review of Radical Sydney was published ["A Return to our Radical Roots", Vibewire.org], by young Politics student Danielle Chiaverni, who we met last year during the Newtown Festival.
According to statistics regarding online visits, our blog continues to draw interest, especially the essay pages--Terry's essay in particular; so too Joan Hume's "Disability and History" essay. The recently added "Ruminations" page is also proving a hit. In bookshops randomly visited during wanderings, we have noted POD copies of Radical Sydney on shelves, indicative of continuing demand for the book almost two-years since publication. During February, the twenty-first review of Radical Sydney was published ["A Return to our Radical Roots", Vibewire.org], by young Politics student Danielle Chiaverni, who we met last year during the Newtown Festival.
March-December
The National Library's Trove indicates libraries across Australia continue to add Radical Sydney to their catalogues. The book is on a number of tertiary history courses that have come to our attention. Folk at Socialist Alliance in Sydney organised Radical Sydney walking tours, during which the book rated mention. Annecdotal evidence indicates the book is still being gifted at birthdays etc, and bookshops continue to stock the book. Happily, our publisher has indicated to us the book will remain in print, available through the POD process/technology.
During February, historian Ann Curthoys gave Radical Sydney a pleasing mention in her talk to the Glebe Society (Sydney) about her association with Glebe and its radical politics and intellectual life. Pleasing also to see the book being cited in scholarly articles, PhD theses, and books.
Visits to our Radical Sydney/Radical History blog continue apace; during February we had the biggest number of visits since going online in June 2010. In early November, we recorded a total of 11,000 site visits since going online. Interest was no doubt helped by word of our blogging spreading, as in the paragraph note about our blog page "Radical Ruminations" in the May 2012 (Issue Number 102) of the Labour History journal (p. 253), and by comment posted on the Socialist Alliance facebook page. Indeed, judging from the statistics available to us, it is the "Ruminations" page that continues to draw significant interest, a factor we noted earlier during the year (see our January-February Diary entry [above]). The greatest number of downloads, however, are for Terry's essay, "Rediscovering Radical History". Such is the interest generally, we've had a number of discussions with scholars, and will probably be doing some radical history gigs around the academic traps during 2013.
On the strength of his peformance at the same function in 2011, Rowan addressed the Sydney Eureka Stockade Commemoration event on November 30. The 140 guests heard him speak on a radical history related topic: the banned Australian Communist Party's underground organisation during World War 2, and its plans for guerilla resistance in the event of invasion by Japan.
We were interviewed in late November about Radical Sydney, and the notion, and writing, of radical history, by ABC Radio National producer Lorena Allam. A ten minute part of this interview was included as part of a 'Hindsight' programme broadcast 16 December 2012 on the subject of one of the chapters in the book, artist Lucien Henry (1850-1896). The programme was titled "Citizen in the Republic of the Arts: Lucien Henry".
2013
Radical Sydney continued to sell, with sales above those of 2012. Visits to the Radical Sydney/Radical History blog increased significantly, reflecting the diversity and depth of materials that continued to be added to the site.
It was pleasing to note the increased use of the term 'radical history' in Australian scholarly and political discourse, forums and online sites in place of, or additional to, the traditional term 'labour history'. For example the Marxism Conference to be held over Easter 2014 at the University of Melbourne has scheduled a 'radical history' strand. Production of a film on the history of the regional centre of Wollongong on the South Coast of NSW, titled Radical Wollongong, and in which Rowan Cahill has a cameo role, is well under way and due for release in May/June 2014.
It seems that the project initiated in 2001 by Ian Syson and his Vulgar Press with the publication of the first of the 'radical history/city' books, beginning with Radical Melbourne by Jeff and Jill Sparrow, followed by a second Melbourne book by the same authors, then one on Brisbane by a team of authors, and later Radical Sydney, planned for Vulgar but ending up with UNSW Press, has borne fruit and gone some way to shifting historical perspectives.
2014
As was the case with 2013, Radical Sydney continued to sell during the year, and visits to the Radical Sydney/Radical History blog continued to increase, with more international traffic than previously. Particularly pleasing was an essay about Radical Sydney by Professor Adam David Morton (Political Economy, Sydney University), 'The Spatial Resources of Radical Sydney' on his blog For the Desk Drawer (April 2014), and later republished on the Progress in Political Economy (PPE) website. This essay generated some of the international interest in the book.
Local interest in radical histories of Australian places continued, notably with the release of the film Radical Wollongong (Green Left TV), which premiered in May 2014 before enjoying well-received independent releases nationally and internationally. The film went on to win the 2014 'Best in Festival' Award at the Canadian Labour International Film Festival. Rowan Cahill was one of the interviewees featured in the film. The year ended with news that a much anticipated book Radical Newcastle, edited by James Bennet, Nancy Cushing, and Eric Eklund, will be released during 2015 by NewSouth Publishing.
2015
Radical Sydney continued to sell, visits to this blog continued (averaging 1000 visits per month), and royalties from copying continued to be received, indicating use of the text in education institutions. It was heartening to see the year begin with the 14th Biennial National Labour History Conference in Melbourne (February), titled "Fighting Against War: Peace Activism in the Twentieth Century". This broke away from the traditional 'labour history' emphasis on trade unions and related organisations and people, and embraced social movement and radical histories. There was a resulting book, Fighting Against War (Melbourne: Left Bank Books, 2015), edited by Phillip Deery and Julie Kimber. Later in the year NewSouth Books released Radical Newcastle, edited by James Bennet, Nancy Cushing, and Eric Eklund, a book we gave early support to in its gestation phase. The related Radical Newcastle blog continued to develop in an exciting way.
Terry built a website, 'Savage Democracy', to gather his writings and scholarship on the themes of radical history and radical democracy in one accessible site. Many of these writings, over the years, have not been accorded the 'approval' of academic publication in rated journals, so have tended to fly beneath the radar of 'academic' scholarship. The development of this site is ongoing.
Rowan's Award winning doctoral dissertation on Australian left-wing journalist/historian/activist Rupert Lockwood (1908-1997), which went online/open access at the University of Wollongong (NSW) in November 2013, notched up 1860 downloads. The dissertation was shaped during, and by, the writing of Radical Sydney.
2016-2017
Radical Sydney continued to sell, and continued to be referenced in articles inside, and outside of, academia, as well as in books and theses. It is understood that work on another Australian 'radical city' volume is in progress by another team of writers. This will become part of a 'genre'...with two books on radical Melbourne, and one each on Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, and a film version on Wollongong. Terry's Savage Democracy book is under contract with an Australian publisher, due for release in 2019/2020.
2018-2019
Radical Sydney continued to make its way in the world, with citations and references to the book in articles, books, documentaries. It continues to be listed on the publisher's catalogue, and orders continue to be filled. The publisher has agreed to keep the book in print for as long as sales continue. Most recently (January-February 2019) Radical Sydney featured in the two-month long exhibition/art installation at UNSW Galleries, part of the Festival of Sydney, of "Zanny Begg: The Beehive", a computer driven documentary film installation based on the life and times and ''disappearance'' (unsolved murder) of investigative journalist Juanita Nielsen in Sydney, 1975. In April 2019 the book was the basis of a well attended Radical Sydney Walking Tour organised by Green Left Weekly. 2020-2021
With this entry, we bring our Diary to a close. Radical Sydney (2010) is still in print and selling. We continue to
see the book referenced in theses, books, articles, commentaries. Terry’s study
of archaeologist V. G. Childe, The Fatal
Lure of Politics: The Life and Thought of Vere Gordon Childe, was published
by Monash University Press (2020) to critical acclaim, nationally and internationally.
Rowan Cahill & Terry Irving
October 2021.
