The Best Hated Man in Australia. The Life and Death of Percy Brookfield, 1875-1921
Glebe, Puncher & Wattmann, 2010.
Octavo, [viii], 377 pages plus 20 pages of plates.
Pictorial papered thin boards; a fine copy.
The title page is signed and dated (13 August 2010) by the author. Broken Hill underground miner, militant trade unionist and politician Percy Brookfield was 'possibly the most extreme anti-politician ever to be elected in this country. The Great War and the years that followed saw unprecedented political turmoil in Australia, and Brookfield was in the thick of it. By the time he was fatally shot at Riverton in South Australia, Brookfield had held the balance of power in NSW and had played major roles in many of the era's main political and industrial events: the Big Strike, the plot of the "IWW Twelve" to burn down Sydney, and the bitter national conscription debate' (rear cover blurb). 'On 22 March 1921 Brookfield was shot on Riverton railway station, South Australia, while trying to disarm Koorman Tomayoff, a deranged Russian who had already wounded two people; he died that day in Adelaide Hospital and was buried in Broken Hill cemetery, where a memorial headstone was unveiled in 1922. The courageous manner of his death was sufficient answer to those who had attributed his opposition to conscription to cowardice' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography').
Item #144714
Price (AUD):
$110.00