Troy Bramston, ‘Continues to loom large’ Menzies’s Art of Politics

Robert Menzies is a towering figure in Australian history, and one who has come to define his side of politics. Yet, despite this, he has only received one full length biography in the last twenty years. How did Menzies come to reach his preeminent position? What can modern politicians learn from our longest serving leader, and how he mastered the arts of persuasion and leadership? And is he often misrepresented by people who want to enlist his authority? Award winning author Troy Bramston unpacks these issues.

Purchase Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics here

Want to learn more? Watch Bramston’s addresses to the Robert Menzies Institute’s first and second annual conferences

Bonus Fact:

The title ‘The Art of Politics’ comes from an essay on politics as an art, which Robert Menzies published in the New York Times in 1948, the year before he won back the prime ministership.

Troy Bramston is a senior writer and columnist with The Australian newspaper. His critically acclaimed book, Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics (2019), is the only biography of Australia’s longest-serving prime minister published in the past 20 years. Troy wrote the introduction to the official guide to Robert Menzies’ papers published by the National Archives of Australia in 2021. He is the best-selling and award-winning author or editor of 11 books in total, including the recently published Bob Hawke: Demons and Destiny (2022) and Paul Keating: The Big-Picture Leader (2016). Troy won the Australian Book Industry Award for The Dismissal (2015) co-authored with Paul Kelly. He has contributed papers to the Robert Menzies Institute’s first two annual conferences, published as chapters in The Young Menzies and The Menzies Watershed.