An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark by Mark McKenna

JUDGES' COMMENTS

This biography is not only a character study of one of Australia’s most celebrated historians, but also an examination of the writing of Australian history over forty years. Mark McKenna does full justice to both these aspects, delineating Manning Clark's contradictory and sometimes difficult nature, and describing fairly and with confidence the more controversial issues in Clark's life and work.

This is a biography that combines lucid and vigorous writing and a fine sense of historical evaluation to present a rich and vital account of a fascinating man and his work and time.

This book does what good biography should: illuminates a whole world through the prism of one man’s life. In describing Clark's writing and his influence on white Australia's perception of this country's history, McKenna deploys clarity of perception, literary flair and a fine sense of historical evaluation. McKenna does full justice to Manning Clark's contradictory nature and, while unsparing, he is never unkind. He deals confidently and shrewdly with the difficult and controversial issues in Clark's life and work: his views on women and Aboriginal peoples, his willingness to place a particular narrative ahead of historical fact, his embrace of the Soviet Union and its policies, the influence of his upbringing on his view of the world, his extraordinary marriage. The result is a rich, sometimes amusing and layered account of a fascinating man – almost a Trollopean figure – and his work and time.