High culture in Australia

An old and agreeable companion, 1972–74

“…I was aware that Humphrey dished out bracing reviews; he believed that Australia historians' politeness toward each other's work-'the gentility principle', as he called it-was inimical to '[t]he idea of the university as a clash of ideas', and he was going to put things to rights. 13 Had I also realised that Crowley was a bête noire of Humphrey's, I would probably have looked elsewhere. Let's just say that Humphrey did not disappoint.…”