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Robert Philp and the Politics of Development

Robert Philp and the Politics of Development JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN STUDIES BOOK REVIEW Robert Philp and the Politics of Development, by Lyndon Megarrity, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2022, xv + 335 pp., $49.95 (paperback), ISBN Lyndon Megarrity’s account of one of Queensland’s pre-eminent businessmen-politicians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is detailed and very readable. Based upon extensive research, including into primary sources, the book adds considerably to existing accounts of a formative period in Australian, and particularly North Queensland, history. However, the parochialism of a major commercial and government figure too easily determines this account. The empirical material could have been enhanced by connecting the international with the local in the ideas employed to describe change, including the descriptors conserva- tism, liberalism and development. These were and are no less globally circulated than the finance, sugar and mineral products that were at the centre of commercial expansion in the time and place Megarrity describes. During the 1870s, Robert Philp, along with James Burns, established what would become one of the pre-eminent Australian-based trading and shipping companies: Burns, Philp & Co. While the firm’s subsequent expansion depended upon increased activities outside Queens- land into the South Pacific, Philp’s own business interests remained centred http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Australian Studies Taylor & Francis

Robert Philp and the Politics of Development

MacWilliam, Scott
Journal of Australian Studies , Volume 47 (2): 2 – Apr 3, 2023
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Robert Philp and the Politics of Development

Abstract

JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN STUDIES BOOK REVIEW Robert Philp and the Politics of Development, by Lyndon Megarrity, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2022, xv + 335 pp., $49.95 (paperback), ISBN Lyndon Megarrity’s account of one of Queensland’s pre-eminent businessmen-politicians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is detailed and very readable. Based upon extensive research, including into primary sources, the book adds considerably to existing accounts of a...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2023 Scott MacWilliam
ISSN
1835-6419
eISSN
1444-3058
DOI
10.1080/14443058.2023.2174665
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN STUDIES BOOK REVIEW Robert Philp and the Politics of Development, by Lyndon Megarrity, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2022, xv + 335 pp., $49.95 (paperback), ISBN Lyndon Megarrity’s account of one of Queensland’s pre-eminent businessmen-politicians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is detailed and very readable. Based upon extensive research, including into primary sources, the book adds considerably to existing accounts of a formative period in Australian, and particularly North Queensland, history. However, the parochialism of a major commercial and government figure too easily determines this account. The empirical material could have been enhanced by connecting the international with the local in the ideas employed to describe change, including the descriptors conserva- tism, liberalism and development. These were and are no less globally circulated than the finance, sugar and mineral products that were at the centre of commercial expansion in the time and place Megarrity describes. During the 1870s, Robert Philp, along with James Burns, established what would become one of the pre-eminent Australian-based trading and shipping companies: Burns, Philp & Co. While the firm’s subsequent expansion depended upon increased activities outside Queens- land into the South Pacific, Philp’s own business interests remained centred

Journal

Journal of Australian Studies – Taylor & Francis

Published: Apr 3, 2023

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