In my day job, I helped develop “John Curtin’s Vision”, an online credential on the life and prime-ministership of Curtin University’s namesake. One of the highlights was appearing in some videos using objects he owned to tell the story of his life – his cut-throat razors, engraved pocket watch, a file copy of the Westralian Worker marked up in blue pencil.

The challenge for me was thinking about John Curtin’s life and career in terms of relevance for today. (And, of course, I’m reflecting as always with my personal views as a biographer, not those of my employer.) I believe biography and history should exist for their own sake, as stories of our past. But our culture expects to apply lessons and maybe it’s a helpful process to make some comparisons to the present day. It’s easy enough when it comes to Curtin: he offers some lessons I endorse. We should look for unlikely leaders like him who are focused on the greater good rather than personal ambition. A cultivated mind and fine oratory are virtues we should celebrate in leaders. Plus the virtue of persistence – he lost four elections for a parliamentary seat but he never gave up and he never moved to a safe seat, even though it would have been the easy thing to do. Then there’s a possible lesson I’m ambivalent about, because it can be used to justify all sorts of things: the virtue of compromise. That needs its own blog post, once I’ve completed the prime ministerial years in my biographical research. These thoughts are only partially reflected in the course itself, but they are what comes to mind as I think about trying to learn from Curtin.

The course includes readings, activities and lectures and will take as long or as little time as you wish to give it. If you’re interested, you can enrol for free here.