Tertiary Foes. "Radical Students: The Old Left at Sydney University" by Alan Barcan and "The Diary of a Vice-Chancellor: University of Melbourne 1935–1938" by Raymond Priestley (ed. Ronald Ridley). [review]

Abstract

Many thousands of undergraduates have walked under the stilts of the Raymond Priestley Building, which forms part of Melbourne University's great wind tunnel, with no thought of the person commemorated by its name. He was, in fact, a remarkable man. His four years as Vice-Chancellor (1935–38) emerge in extraordinary detail and intimacy, thanks to this edition of his journals. If the Priestley diaries give the view of a university from the top, Alan Barcan's study of the old left at Sydney University gives it from the bottom, or at least the middle. His study spans more than four decades, commencing in the 1920s and moving on to the new left period. His work is amiable, ironic and inclusive.