1st Edition

The Times Will Suit Them Postmodern conservatism in Australia

By Geoff Boucher Copyright 2008
    270 Pages
    by Routledge

    270 Pages
    by Routledge

    John Howard said, The times will suit me,' and they did. For over a decade John Howard took advantage of international crises and local anxieties to not only stay in government, but to radically reshape Australian public life.

    The Times Will Suit Them digs behind the headlines to explain the success of Howard's radical new conservatism. It shows how the Howard government and its small legion of culture warriors responded to deep changes engendered by two decades of economic reform by importing moral agendas from the US. The result was a brand of deeply postmodern' conservatism which undermined much that traditional conservatives hold dear.

    From Hansonism to children overboard to the Intervention in the Northern Territory and beyond, The Times Will Suit Them offers a fresh and provocative analysis from two Young Turks. It is compelling reading for anyone seeking to understand the drivers in contemporary Australian politics.

    Acknowledgements

    Introduction: A Postmodern Kind of Conservatism

    Part 1

    Chapter 1: Relaxed and Comfortable; Alert and Alarmed

    Chapter 2: Refounding Australia and Getting It Right This Time

    Chapter 3: In Whom Did We Trust?

    Chapter 4: The New Spirit of Howard's Laws

    Part 2

    Chapter 5: Integration Crisis, or: Why Culture Wars Now?

    Chapter 6: Culture Wars and the New Religiosity

    Chapter 7: Social Solidarity or Postmodern Tribalism?

    Chapter 8: The Politics of Fear and the Authoritarian Personality

    Conclusion: After Howard Postmodernism or a Revitalized Australia?

    Biography

    Geoff Boucher and Matthew Sharpe lecture at Deakin University.