Humphrey McQueen's new edition of his irreverent classic charts the origins of the Australian Labor Party. In tracing the social forces which produced the ALP, he shows it was anti-socialist from the very start. Along the way he reveals a colonial passion for pianos and uncovers the proto-fascist ideas behind Henry Lawson's popular writings. Racism rears its many heads throughout this challenging story, and McQueen shows that the desire for land was the basis for much of what passed as radicalism and socialism.