Santamaria: A Most Unusual Man

B.A. Santamaria was one of the most controversial Australians of our time. An ardent anti-Communist and devout Catholic, he was fiercely intelligent and a natural leader, polarising the community into loyal followers and committed opponents.

In the 1940s Santamaria created the anti-Communist organisation 'The Movement'. In the 1950s he was a key figure in the tumultuous split of the Australian Labor Party. He subsequently enjoyed great influence as a public commentator on his television program Point of View and in his weekly column in The Australian. Santamaria had a strong social conscience and spent much of his time helping the underprivileged. Although he began as an advocate and champion of the Catholic Church, he spent much of his last decades opposing some of its activities.

Published for the 100th anniversary of Santamaria's birth, Santamaria: A Most Unusual Man is an authoritative biography from Gerard Henderson, a close colleague until a disagreement saw the two men estranged and never reconciled.

About the author

Gerard Henderson BA (Hons), LLB, PhD is executive director of the Sydney Institute and a columnist for the Weekend Australian. He also appears regularly on ABC TV's program Insiders and writes a weekly blog, Media Watch Dog. Henderson's publications include Mr Santamaria and the Bishops (1982), Australian Answers (1990) and Menzies' Child: The Liberal Party of Australia (1994). He was appointed by the Keating government to the board of the Australia Foundation for Culture and the Humanities and by the Howard government to the Foreign Affairs Council. Henderson chairs the judges' panel of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards for Australian History and Non-fiction.