Possess the time : the formation and character of Australian intellectual conservatism in the 1950s

Abstract

This thesis studies intellectual conservatism in Australia in the 1950s and, by placing the emphasis on the cultural and institutional response to social change, examines realignments in social analysis rather than its ideological dimension. Commentaries on six issues are discussed to assess the range and character of conservatism, and its relationship to social change. These issues are: reactions to Asian nationalism; administrative priorities in Papua New Guinea; the economic policies recommended in times of prosperity; the decentralisation campaigns; post-war concepts of citizenship and ‘personality’; and the social role of the universities. The argument of this thesis is that the reaction of the commentators to these issues, and their careers, values and strategies in analysis, indicate that intellectual conservatism at that time represented elements of a continuation of an earlier period of intellectual reformism and not a radical break with the past. Show more