The Land of Dreams: How Australians Won Their Freedom, 1788-1860
David Kemp
Melbourne University Publishing: 2018
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On the western shores of Sydney Cove sits  Barangaroo, a colossal business, residential and casino development with a controversial name. It is an unusual place for a book launch. But here we all are, thirty-five stories up, in the offices of Gilbert + Tobin, an upper-mid-tier law firm. Waiters pass out lamb chops, polenta, champagne. We are here to launch The Land of Dreams: How Australians Won Their Freedom, 1788-1860, the first in a five-volume history of Australian liberalism by David Kemp, a retired politician from Australia’s centre-right Liberal Party.

The crowd is mostly male, white, grey-haired and suited. Everyone seems to know everyone else. A young gun with slicked-back hair and spotted socks sidles up to a dignitary. “You know,” he drawls, “I was just reading your university thesis.” Out the window, Sydney’s harbour glitters in the sundown.

Our host for the evening is Nick Cater, head of the Menzies Research Centre — one of Australia’s top conservative think tanks — and a prominent right-wing culture warrior. “This is a book,” Cater declares, “about the idea of freedom, which made us great.” Cater introduces Paul Kelly, a fellow columnist at Rupert Murdoch’s national broadsheet the Australian. Kelly loves the book: “It is a towering achievement!” He says Kemp has identified the nation’s moral foundation at a crucial time, given the rise of “shrill identity politics and division”.

• Tags: Alexander Wells, David Kemp, Issue 14