Staff profile

Professor Robert Manne

Professor

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Social Sciences

SS 325, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA (Melbourne), BPhil (Oxford).

Membership of professional associations

Chair, Editorial Committee, The Monthly Magazine

Area of study

Australian Studies
International Relations
Politics

Brief profile

Professor Robert Manne was educated at the Universities of Melbourne and Oxford. He now holds a Personal Chair in Politics at La Trobe University, is Convenor of The Ideas & Society Program at La Trobe University, and is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Manne has written or edited twenty books including The Petrov Affair: Politics and Espionage; Left, Right, Left; Political Essays-1977-2005; and most recently, Making Trouble: Essays against the New Australian Complacency and the Quarterly Essay, “Bad News: Murdoch’s Australian and the Shaping of the Nation”. His books and essays have won various awards. Between 1987 and 2004 he was a columnist on public affairs for both the Murdoch Press and Fairfax, and also a regular commentator on ABC Radio. He is a frequent contributor to The Monthly. In 2005 he was voted Australia’s leading public intellectual in a survey conducted by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Research interests

Australian Government and Politics

- Australian political culture

International Relations

- International relations

Political Theory and Political Philosophy

- Communism

- Politics and the Media

- Politics of Eastern and Central Europe

- The Cold War

Teaching units

  • POL2/3APC - Australian Political Culture.
  • POL3HON - Politics of the Twentieth Century.

Recent publications

Books:

  • Manne, R 2011, Bad News: Murdoch’s Australian and the Shaping of the Nation, Quarterly Essay, no.34.
  • Manne, R 2011, Making Trouble: Essays against the New Australian Complacency, Black Inc. Agenda, Melbourne.
  • Manne, R 2010, Goodbye to All That? On the Failure of Neo-Liberalism and the Urgency of Change, (edited with David McKnight), Black Inc. Agenda, Melbourne.
  • Manne, R 2009, W.E.H. Stanner, The Dreaming and Other Essays, (edited & introduced), Black Inc. Agenda, Melbourne.
  • Manne, R (ed.) 2008, Dear Mr Rudd: Ideas for a Better Australian, Black Inc, Melbourne.
  • Manne, R and Beilharz, P (eds), 2006, Reflected Light: La Trobe Essays, Black Inc, Melbourne.
  • Manne, R 2005, Left Right Left, Black Inc, Melbourne.

Book Chapters:

  • Manne, R 2011 (forthcoming), “Julian Assange: The Cypherpunk Revolutionary” in Ramona Koval (ed.), The Best Australian Essays 2011, Black Inc., Melbourne.
  • Manne, R 2011, “Primo Levi: A Tribute” in Christopher  Cordner, Philosophy, Ethics and a Common Humanity: Essays in Honour of Raimond Gaita, Routledge, London.
  • Manne, R 2010, “Asylum Seekers and Australian Democracy: What Do We Fear?” in Robert Drewe (ed.), The Best Australian Essays 2010, Black Inc., Melbourne.
  • Manne, R 2010, “Is Neo-Liberalism Finished?” in Robert Manne & David McKnight, Goodbye to All That? On the Failure of Neo-Liberalism & the Urgency of Change, Black Inc., Melbourne.
  • Manne, R 2009, “Why We Weren’t Warned”, in Robyn Davidson (ed.), The Best Australian Essays 2009, Black Inc., Melbourne.
  • Manne, R 2009, “On the Political Corruptions of a Moral Universal” in Jeffrey Alexander et al., Remembering The Holocaust, Oxford University Press, New York.
  • Manne, R 2008, 'What Went Wrong?', in Peter van Onselen (ed.), The Liberals and Power: The Road Ahead, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, pp 9-32.
  • Manne, R 2008, '26 August - 11 September; From Tampa to 9/11', in Martin Crotty and David Andrew Roberts (eds), Turning Points in Australian History, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, pp 239-254.
  • Manne, R 2008, 'Sorry Business', in David Marr (ed.), The Best Australian Essays 2008, Black Inc, Melbourne, pp 101-117.
  • Manne, R 2008, 'Pearson's Gamble: Stanner's Dream'', in Tony Jones (ed.), The Best Australian Political Writing, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, pp 75-91.
  • Manne, R 2008, 'Introduction', in R Manne (ed.), Dear Mr Rudd: Ideas for a Better Australia, Black Inc, Melbourne, pp 1-14.
  • Manne, R 2007, 'Pearson's Gamble, Stanner's Dream', in D Modjeska (ed.), The Best Australian Essays 2007, Black Inc, Melbourne, pp 286-304.
  • Manne, R 2006, 'The New Dominoin', in P Beilharz and R Manne (eds), Reflected Light: La Trobe Essays, Black Inc, Melbourne.

Research projects

  • Aboriginal History in the Twentieth Century
  • Politics and the Media 
  • The Question of Repatriation of Refugees from Australia