Review of The Australian Tradition, Second Revised Edition, by A.A. Phillips

Abstract

Introducing a second edition of his collection of essays, The Australian Tradition, A. A. Phillips acknowledges that the inclusion of three new essays written since the first edition in 1958 'may disguise the truth that this book, in its main contents, belongs to a phase of Australian cultural development from which we are now emerging', and he expresses himself pleased to find that some parts of the earlier essays now seem dated. It is indeed pleasing to reflect that the essay entitled 'The Cultural Cringe'—a phrase that Mr Phillips put into circulation—is more relevant to the past than to the present. The cultural situation has changed significantly, even in the time that this volume of essays has been in print; but the line of thought represented by the title of the collection and asserted vigorously in two general essays—'The Democratic Theme' and 'The Family Relationship'— was already dated when the book first appeared.