Donald Horne by Ryan Cropp | Black Inc.

Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country

Awards for Donald Horne

  • Winner, 2024 Prime Minister's Literary Awards
  • Shortlisted, 2024 National Biography Award
  • Shortlisted, 2024 ACT Literary Award for Nonfiction
  • Shortlisted, 2024 NSW Premier's History Awards
  • Shortlisted, 2024 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award
  • Shortlisted, 2024 Australian Political Book of the Year Award

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About the author

Ryan Cropp

Ryan Cropp is a writer and historian based in Sydney. His writing has appeared in Australian Book ReviewOverland and Inside Story. He has studied and taught in the Department of History at the University of …

More about Ryan Cropp



Praise for Donald Horne

‘Unmissable for anybody interested in the intellectual life of this country. The absorbing story of how one fascinating man was changed by the times he lived through, and how he, in turn, changed his country.’ —Sean Kelly, author of The Game
 

'A compulsive read about a writer who shaped the way we Australians think about ourselves' —Judith Brett, award-winning author of Robert Menzies' Forgotten People and The Enigmatic Mr Deakin

‘Cropp describes a formidable and unorthodox public intellectual’ —Jason Steger, The Age ‘The best books to read in August’

‘Horne’s example of vigorous but respectful disagreement, as Cropp shows in this compelling and important biography, is well worth revisiting.’ —Frank Bongiorno, Inside Story

‘This is an impressive biography, impeccably researched and beautifully crafted.’ —Phillip Deery, The Sydney Morning Herald

‘In his accomplished and insightful biography … Cropp has captured a full life, well lived, that was a tribute to the importance of paying attention and making a difference.’ —Julianne Schultz, The Conversation

‘[A] very readable and informing account of a figure of whom a standard life has long been required and a gap in the record filled’ —Guy Rundle, Arena

‘Ryan Cropp’s thoughtful life of Donald Horne … charted the restless and provocative habits of his subject with care and elegance, and animated decades of faded news and current affairs with colour and poise.’ —Patrick Mullins, Australian Book Review ‘Books of the Year 2023’

‘Donald Horne lived a long and interesting life that saw many changes, just as he was changed himself. Ryan Cropp has done him full justice in this exemplary biography.’ — Doug Munro, JACANZS
 

‘An excellent, well-rounded biography that pays due credit – and critique – to its complicated and, at times, diffident subject. The literary quality of this biography emerges from the superbly crafted prose. It is a delight to read from the first page to the last, consistently clear yet never simplistic.’  – Judges Comments, Prime Minister’s Literary Awards 2024

‘Ryan Cropp’s Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country  is a meticulously researched, richly detailed biographical account of one of Australia’s most notable cultural commentators. It is both a social history and an intellectual journey.’ – Alexander Howard, The Conversation

‘Ryan Cropp’s biography of Donald Horne is not just the story of one of our major 20th Century intellectuals but of the times he lived in, the institutions which dominated our national debates, and characters that once shaped our political, cultural, and literary worlds. Cropp’s account of Horne’s influence on public debate over the second half of the 20th Century tracks the shift in his attitudes from the right to the left of the political spectrum, gives us a rare portrait of the other characters who dominated the stage during Horne’s times and holds up a mirror to the very different nature of political and intellectual discussion to the one we experience today.’—Judges, 2024 Australian Political Book of the Year Award Shortlist