Strangio, Paul & Nick Dyrenfurth, ed.
Confusion: The Making of the Australian Two-Party System, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2009; electronic version available
Collection of articles examining ‘Fusion’, the coming together in 1909 of the anti-Labor parties in Australia, setting the party lines which have persisted for more than a hundred years. The next step, however, was a decisive win in 1910 for Labor under Andrew Fisher, as the first majority Labor Government anywhere in the world (and the first majority government of any stripe in the new Commonwealth of Australia). Judith Brett and Stuart Macintyre write about Deakin and his protectionist supporters, Frank Bongiorno about Free Trade Liberals, Sean Scalmer about the Free Trade men, and other authors paint other parts of the picture.