Martyn Lyons: ‘They Certainly Felt Empowered’ Writing Letters to Menzies

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Emeritus Professor Martyn Lyons about letters written to Robert Menzies.

During his time as Prime Minister, Robert Menzies received thousands of letters from ordinary Australians. Many wrote asking for help, others wrote to congratulate him on various achievements, and still others wrote angrily to scold him for some misdeed like daring to increase the salaries of MPs. These letters can provide a unique social history which offers a marvellous insight into the everyday concerns of Australians of the Menzies era, if only someone took the time to read them.

Martyn Lyons did take the time, and the fruit of his painstaking efforts is the book Dear Prime Minister: Letters to Robert Menzies, 1949–1966. This ‘history from below’ offers an important perspective that is often overlooked by more conventional histories. It reveals the lived experience of an era that is so often stereotyped or crystalized by hindsight, highlighting anxieties, prejudices, and anguish that might otherwise have been lost to history.

Martyn Lyons is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of New South Wales, an institution he has been associated with since 1977. He received a PhD from the University of Oxford, and has authored numerous books including The Typewriter Century: A Cultural History of Writing Practices and The Writing Culture of Ordinary People in Europe, c. 1860-1920. He was awarded the Centenary medal in 2003 for services to the Humanities in the study of History and is a former president of the Australian Historical Association.