When the Labor Party Dreams – Class, Politics and Policy in NSW 1930–32

The New South Wales Labor government came to power in 1930 at a time of unprecedented working-class radicalism. When the Labor Party Dreams uses previously unexamined archival records and oral histories to show how Lang's government made policy, engaged with the bureaucracy and pushed the conventions of parliamentary democracy to the limit. It examines Depression-era electoral behaviour and shows how Labor's radicalism was ultimately constrained by the dependence of working-class voters on capitalism. When the Labor Party Dreams recalls a time of dreams and visions and their costs, from the factory floor to the Cabinet table.