Political lives: do they matter?

Date and time to be confirmed in 2024 - watch this space

Dr Wallace's latest book, Political Lives: Australian prime ministers and their biographers (UNSW Press, 2023), was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Prize in History. 

Professor Chris Wallace works in modern and contemporary political history and public policy with special reference to leadership, gender, transnational lives, and transformational change and the information strategies underlying it. Her book on Australian Labor's shock 2019 election loss, How To Win An Election, (NewSouth, 2020), contextualised it against the backdrop of the last half-century of Australian federal elections. Previous books include The Private Don (Allen & Unwin, 2004), an exploration of the intense 30 year-long relationship between cricketer Don Bradman and his confidante, journalist Rohan Rivett; a biography of maverick Australian feminist Germaine Greer, Greer, Untamed Shrew (Pan Macmillan, 1997; Faber & Faber, 1999); and a biography of the then crusading neoliberal policy exponent John Hewson during his Opposition leadership in the early 1990s, Hewson: A Portrait (Pan Macmillan, 1993). She was the National Archives of Australia Cabinet Historian in 2020 and 2021 for the release of the 2000 and 2001 Cabinet papers.