study of how one organisation has successfullynavigated this changing landscape while stayingfirm to its central beliefs makes a valuable con-tribution not only to the history of welfare, but toother organisations seeking to makemission cent-ral to service delivery.

SHURLEE SWAINAustralian Catholic University© 2014, Shurlee Swain

Sewing Freedom: Philip Josephs, Transnationalismand Early New Zealand Anarchism.By Jared Davidson. Oakland, CA: AK Press,2013. Pp. 174. US$12.95 paper.

Jared Davidson has meticulously pieced to-gether the life of Philip Josephs, a Latvian-bornJewish tailor who immigrated to New Zealandvia Scotland in 1905. Josephs, he argues, wasnot only central to anarchist organising amongstNew Zealand’s radical working class in the earlytwentieth century, but embedded such radical-ism in an international anarchist movement.

Davidson aims to prove three claims: first,Josephs, due to his activities in the New ZealandSocialist Party and the formation of the Welling-ton Freedom Group, brought organised anarch-ism to New Zealand. Second, anarchist thoughtand activity played a role in New Zealand’s earlytwentieth-century labour movement despite theabsence of anarchism from labour histori-ography. And third, New Zealand anarchistswere part of a vibrant international anarchistculture, particularly through the distribution ofanarchist literature, which connected New Zeal-and publications with the Freedom Press in theUnited Kingdom and the Mother Earth Publish-ing Association in the United States of America.

One of the most impressive feats of thisbook is how Davidson has extrapolated so muchabout Josephs’ life from such fragmentary evid-ence. For example, all that is known aboutPhilip Josephs’ early life is that he was born inthe Latvian port city of Liepaja on 25 November1876 and he left for Glasgow at about the age oftwenty. Yet the opening chapter, which exploresJewish life in the city, repression and the rootsof Latvian anarchist culture, gives the reader avibrant sense of the forces operating on a youngPhilip Josephs. The second chapter does some-thing similar, beginning with Josephs’ marriage

to Sophia Hillman in Glasgow in November1897 and tracing Josephs’ connections toGlaswegian anarchism through his tailoringwork and Sophia’s brother and cousin, ArthurHillman and Sidney Hillman respectively. Thethird chapter teases out traces of anarchism—

and public opposition to anarchism—in NewZealand prior to Josephs’ arrival in 1904, joiningthose historians who emphasise class relations incolonial New Zealand. Wellington’s working-class counter-culture is the subject of thefourth chapter; the Wellington branch of theNew Zealand Socialist Party (NZSP) andJosephs’ anarchist book (and tailoring) shopare placed in a local, national and internationalcontext.

The fifth chapter traces the movement ofanarchists away from the NZSP when it morerigidly adhered to classical Marxist doctrine in1910, to join forces with New Zealand branchesof the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).Davidson constructs a compelling argumentabout the reciprocity of radical influences, fromthe local to the international, and vice versa, inchapter six. Special focus is given to New Zeal-ander Percy Short’s contributions to interna-tional debates on state socialism and LolaRidge’s contributions to New York anarchism.Chapter seven explores the interconnectionsbetween New Zealand anti-militarism, theformation of New Zealand’s first anarchist orga-nisation, theWellington FreedomGroup, and the1913 Great Strike. Davidson argues in chaptereight that after the defeat of the Great Strike,war regulations were used to target revolution-ary syndicalism, and, as a result, organisedanarchism disappeared from New Zealand,shortly after it had begun. The book followsJosephs into rural New Zealand and on to Sydneyin 1921where he lived the remainder of his days.If Josephs continued his anarchist activities inAustralia, no trace was found. The epiloguereminds us how difficult it is to trace the historyof anarchism because its adherents did notbelieve in the institutional forms that producedhistorical records. Thus, ‘the true scope of earlyanarchism in New Zealand may never beknown’ (143).

Davidson is passionate about his subject, andhas produced a lively and beautifully illustratedaccount of anarchism in New Zealand. Inembedding New Zealand in the world with hisdiscussion of transnational flows of anarchistliterature and thought, he successfully recovers

Reviews: Books 155

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and defends an ideology that has often beenmisrepresented as individual acts of terrorism.Philip Josephs’ communist anarchist philosophyis clearly and thoughtfully introduced in chapterfour (56), and elucidated across the monograph,especially in relation to the work of Bakunin,Kropotkin and Emma Goldman. If anything, thediscussion of anarchist philosophy could havebeen extended, particularly focusing on thework of Emma Goldman. Davidson bemoansthe fact that there was little evidence of femaleanarchists in New Zealand, but gender can berecovered in other ways. An unpacking of essayssuch as Emma Goldman’s ‘Tragedy of Women’sEmancipation’ could have provided a sense ofwhat appealed to those women who attendedFreedom Group socials in 1913. Or perhapssome reflection on Freedom Group ‘free societysocials’ that did away with formal hierarchiesbut thanked ladies for their assistance in makingthe night a success. But these are just quibbles.The greatest strength of this work is its transna-tionalism; anarchism was always on the move,yet this movement took radical hold in NewZealand, thanks to the tireless efforts of PhilipJosephs.

CYBÈLE LOCKEVictoria University of Wellington© 2014, Cybèle Locke

Melbourne before Mannix: Catholics in PublicLife 1880–1920.By Patrick Morgan. Ballan, Vic.: Connorcourt,2012. Pp. 234. A$29.95 paper.

This valuable and accessible study focuses on theliterary and intellectual activities of lay andclerical Catholics grouped around the journalAustral Light (1892–1920), which flourishedwhen Thomas Carr was Catholic archbishop ofMelbourne. The narrative is enhanced with arange of suitable archival photographs of per-sonalities and events.

Author Patrick Morgan aims to reversepublic perceptions that ‘the great outburst ofactivity in the archdiocese of Melbourne beganwhen Archbishop Daniel Mannix came’ (1).Morgan, indeed, makes a strong case thatMannix inherited a thriving diocese. He con-centrates on fourteen writers and organisersfrom Carr’s ‘active Catholic elite’.

Morgan categorises his subjects thus:

Three were poets, Fr J J Malone, Fr Michael Watson SJand Marion Miller Knowles; four were editors andjournalists, Joseph Winter, J P O’Meara, James Hoganand William McMahon; three were prominent clerics,Fr Patrick Phelan, Fr John Norris and Fr MauriceO’Reilly; three were converts, Ronald Stewart, WilliamBowditch and Benjamin Hoare; two were doctors, DrLeo Kenny and Dr Gerald Baldwin; two were activistsin the cause of Home Rule for Ireland, Dr NicholasO’Donnell and Morgan Jageurs; three were membersof the Brennan family; and William Linehan was abookseller and publisher. (3)

These activists ran, not always on their own,organisations such as the Australian CatholicFederation, the Australian Catholic Truth Soci-ety, the Catholic Young Men’s Society, theHibernians, the Celtic Club and the NewmanSociety. In addition to Austral Light, they pub-lished in the Advocate and Tribune. They sup-ported the establishment and growth of StVincent’s Hospital and Newman College.

Nine of the book’s thirteen chapters deal inchronological order with the period when Carrwas in charge from 1887 until 1917. They arepreceded by two chapters summarising Catholiclife in Melbourne before Carr’s arrival; and theyare followed by a chapter on Mannix’s first threeyears when, under the strains of a traumatic warin Europe and a rebellion in Ireland, theconsensus in the Austral Light group broke up.Since for four years Mannix was a vigorouscoadjutor to an ailing Carr, the last two Carr-erachapters are, indeed, centred on Mannix. Mor-gan acknowledges his debt to Thomas Boland’sbiography of Carr but concludes that he exag-gerated Carr’s difficulties with Mannix.

Attitudes of this educated Catholic elite arediscussed regarding topics such as state aid forCatholic schools, support for Irish Home Rule,Federation, anti-Catholic prejudice, oppositionto the Boer War, the Dreyfus case, the Austra-lian Labor Party and then the First World War.The Ned Kelly story is covered in a one-sentenceparenthesis. Not covered are the Austral Lightgroup’s positions on the coercive treatment ofAborigines in the 1890s or the White Australiapolicy.

Morgan brings to his task years of experi-ence as a writer. A regular contributor toQuadrant and literary journals, he recently com-pleted the editing of two large volumes of theletters and papers of Bartholomew Santamaria.This book is speckled with interesting asides

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