A memoir from the influential and controversial historian of The Australian Legend. Radical and articulate, Russel Ward was a champion of the underdog and an outspoken critic of the status quo for most of his life. His uncompromising honesty sometimes cost him dearly.His evocation of his boyhood and early youth is an affectionate but accurate picture of the time between two world wars, of a country both narrow in its outlook and generous in the gifts it could bestow on its right-thinking citizens. In 1941, he and his wife Margaret joined the Communist Party, partly to work for a better world and partly to reinforce their hatred of fascism and the murderous racism of the Nazis. As a result, for years Russel Ward was hounded by spies and secret police. Anecdotal and amusing, perceptive and forthright, A Radical Life encapsulates Russel Ward, his contemporaries and his times.