Performance Politics

How has Australian political life become so personalised, emotional and autobiographical?

In Performance Politics historian and speechwriter Josh Black provides an eye-opening account of how Australian politicians have become experts at fashioning and refashioning stories about themselves, their lives, personal ambitions and political entanglements. Delving into memoirs, autobiographies, documentaries, media coverage, personal papers and original interviews, the book reveals how much of our recent political history has been delivered through the prism of the publishing house, the book launch, the documentary, and the loungerooms where political retrospectives were broadcast. From a time when ‘telling tales out of school’ (as Billy Hughes once put it) was not the done thing, to one where the 2024 Nemesis documentary showcased backstabbing, character assassinations and high emotions.

Performance Politics shows how political life writing and documentary making has played an outsized role in creating the story-driven political culture of our times. Settling scores, shaping legacies and dramatising the democratic process, sometimes in shocking ways.