Hugh Stretton

His book The Political Sciences was hailed by the Times Literary Supplement as 'a work of near genius.' His Ideas for Australian Cities was a groundbreaking intervention in urban studies and progressive thinking on social reform. This collection of Stretton's writing, compiled by Australia's leading urban historian, Graeme Davison, includes highlights from these and a wide range of other works, offering a definitive selection on history and politics, urban planning, and social and economic development. Whether criticising Paul Keating or defending life in the suburbs, Stretton was an eloquent original.

Robert Manne writes that 'Hugh Stretton may have been Australia's most distinguished post-war social scientist. With great intelligence and subtlety, Hugh's lifelong thinking offers an alternative to the neoliberal orthodoxy that took hold in the Anglophone world from the early 1980s and which, since the global financial crisis, has begun to lose its grip. The time is ripe for a collection.'

About the Editor

Graeme Davison is Australia's best-known urban historian and a leading social historian. His prize-winning books include The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, City Dreamers- The Urban Imagination in Australia and Car Wars- How the Car Won our Hearts and Conquered our Cities. He is a co-editor of the landmark Oxford Companion to Australian History and an emeritus professor at Monash University.