The recollections of Australia's leading public intellectual

Robert Manne is one of Australia's most profound political analysts. His memoir traces his intellectual roots, revealing how his family background and early years informed the questions he would spend his life trying to answer. It also provides a fascinating portrait of key political controversies, including intellectual combat over communism, Quadrant, the Stolen Generations, the Murdoch press, Manning Clark and much more.

During the Cold War and the culture wars, Manne clashed with some of the most influential thinkers and writers – Noam Chomsky, Les Murray, Leonie Kramer, Tom Keneally, Helen Darville, Keith Windschuttle, Chris Mitchell and Andrew Bolt. This memoir recounts what happened and why.

Often subverting conventional notions of left and right, Manne is an original thinker who has helped shape the nation's discourse for decades. This is the inside story of a life of engagement and reflection, and a book for anyone interested in the shape and meaning of the past nearly fifty years of politics.