In the four decades of his public life, Brian Fitzpatrick (1906–96) was variously journalist, historian, adviser to governments, publicist, and chief spokesman in Australia for civil liberties.
His politics had a maverick quality. The right damned him as a 'fellow-traveller'; their radical opponents saw him as a left liberal. In truth he remained an independent radical, one of this country's very few freelance intellectuals.
For the author of British Imperialism and Australia, The British Empire in Australia, and A Short History of the Australian Labor Movement, an appreciation of the past and a commitment to a political stance were indissolubly bound. Writing history was in itself a political act.
Yet, despite his impact on Australian history writing and on Australian political and intellectual culture, despite his contribution to the defence of civil liberties, Brian Fitzpatrick: A radical life is the first substantial study of his life's work.