Abstract
The point of political biography is not simply to tell a life story, but to say something about the conduct of politics. As Kenneth Morgan put it: ‘I … use biography to … answer political questions about public issues’ (Morgan 1988, 33). Political biography deals, then, with how people function within institutions, why people engage with (and dominate in) groups, what are the factors in success and failure, what we might expect of those who favour particular styles — that is, it is the application of biography to a set of analytical tasks (Davies 1972b). The nature of contemporary political biography in Australia reveals something of its history, and of its usefulness in addressing such tasks.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Australian Study of Politics |
| Editors | R.A.W. Rhodes |
| Place of Publication | Basingstoke UK |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Chapter | 7 |
| Pages | 97-106 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780230296848 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780230201033 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 11 Nov 2009 |
| Externally published | Yes |