This book reclaims Cultural Liberalism as an important part of Australian intellectual heritage. Arguing that the tradition is central to the Australian experience of modernity, Gregory Melleuish traces the impact of cultural liberalism from its emergence around the time of Federation to its demise during the 1960s. Part collective biography, part intellectual and cultural history, the book describes the development of cultural liberalism, founded on rationalism and humanism, by university-educated intellectuals. Dr Melleuish argues that a religious and spiritual dimension was also central to the tradition. He draws attention to the intellectual similarities of thinkers not usually grouped together, and also considers those who inherited the tradition but repudiated it. This provocative book will make an important contribution to debates about culture, identity and citizenship in post-modern Australia.

Why are Australian Intellectuals and academics so hostile to contemporary Australian life? Why do they so often hold disparaging views of their fellow Australians? This was not always the case. In the nineteenth century Australians of an intellectual disposition sought to work with their fellow Australians to build a better and freer country. But from the end of the nineteenth century, beginning with the Bulletin an intellectual culture emerged which was adversarial in nature and increasingly hostile to the aspirations of ordinary Australians. This culture of intellectuals became embedded in key institutions, including the universities, the world of the arts and the ABC. It became a subculture isolated from mainstream Australia in intellectual ghettos. It is a world which bristles with hostility, negativity and nihilism. History has been a favoured domain for Australian intellectuals and they heartedly condemn the Australian past and the Australian people. The only problem is that the more they blacken the past the more they turn off students from studying history. The result is a real crisis in the study of the Australian past. The only way forward is a much more sober and sensible approach by intellectuals, especially in terms of appreciating our Western heritage.