'This is an excellent account of an excellent Australian.' Professor Geoffrey Bolton
Part I. Learning and Teaching: 1. Childhood and youth; 2. Schooling; 3. Self-possession; 4. Busselton; 5. Claremont; 6. Wheat belt days; 7. Night student; 8. Finding the words; 9. Representing; 10. Murdoch; Part II. Liberalism's Crisis: 11. LSE student; 12. Politics v. economics; 13. The money power and its critics; 14. Poor Britain; Part III. The Experts we Need: 15. A vacancy?; 16. The economists; 17. From people's bank to central bank; 18. Sweden and Australia; Part IV. New Orders: 19. Trusting the people; 20. Reconstruction and feminism; 21. Fighting for 'yes'; 22. Soldiers and workers; Part V. Internationalist: 23. Labor's new internationalism; 24. The diplomacy of security; 25. Success in London; 26. Global temptations; 27. Geneva; 28. Havana; 29. An official community; 30. Coombs the Keynesian; Part VI. From Labor to Liberal: 31. Chifley's 'family'; 32. The commanding heights?; 33. The Cold War and CSIRO; 34. Vice Chancellor?; 35. Reconstructing Papua New Guinea; 36. Governor and father; 37. Chifley's man; 38. Menzies' man?; 39. Corporate Elizabethan; Part VII. Other People's Money: 40. Inflation and war; 41. Wage earners' democracy; 42. Horror budget; 43. The Governor muted; 44. Stern mentor?; 45. Coombs as boss; 46. Carrots and sticks; 47. Women at the bank; 48. A culture of inflation; 49. Separation; 50. A Melanesian way?; 51. Poor man's overdraft; 52. Frustrated internationalist; Part VIII. Managing Creativity: 53. Reasonable liberty; 54. Visualising Australia; 55. Nuclear matters; 56. Opera; 57. Ballet; 58. In search of an audience; 59. Re-designing Australia; Part IX. Labor's Second Chance: 60. Retirement; 61. Whitlam conscripts Coombs; 62. Trade reform; 63. Two cultural constituencies; 64. Wages and taxes; Part X. Rethink: 65. The stuffed owl of Minerva; 66. Nature and human nature; 67. Economies and communities; 68. Losing the master key; 69. The responsive public servant; Part XI. Elite Outrider: 70. Torres Strait; 71. Conservation and Aborigines; 72. Bapa Dhumbul; Conclusion: histories nostalgic and hopeful.