Essay
The Lucky Country
Donald Horne · 1964
Synopsis
An essay on Australia in the early sixties. The author argues that the country's prosperity owes more to luck, its British heritage, its resources and immigration than to the vigour of its institutions or its economy. He reproaches his compatriots for their lack of inventiveness and ambition, their smug indifference to intellectual and artistic life, their puritanism, their conservatism, censorship, parochialism and dependence on other powers.
Context
The book appeared in December 1964; The Australian published extracts from 2 December, and it caused a stir despite reserved reviews. Raewyn Connell sees in it the country's first bestseller of popular sociology. The title comes from the opening of the last chapter, which describes a lucky country run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck; the ironic phrase has become an affectionate nickname for the country, much to the regret of the author, who said he was aiming at its leaders. He returned to it in 1976, then in 1987.
Who it is for
An essay in English of about three hundred pages, which can be read chapter by chapter; no French translation.
Prizes and reception
According to its current publisher, a book that caused a sensation and woke up a nation content with itself.