| Book Review | Labour History, 95 | The History Cooperative

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BOOK REVIEW

*George Burchett and Nick Shimmin (eds), Rebel Journalism: The Writings of Wilfred Burchett,* Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2007. pp. xxi + 314. $37.95 paper.**
Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett (1911–83) was controversial when he was alive, and remains so long after his death. According to supporters he is/was a distinguished, courageous and heroic journalist, to his critics a communist propagandist, maybe even a traitor.	1
Burchett died in Bulgaria, having put the finishing touches to his final book and after a stroke. Years after his death he continues to be of interest: a huge unabridged edition of his Memoirs of a Rebel Journalist was published in 2005; an academic defence by Tom Heenan, From Traveller to Traitor, followed in 2006; and recently a critique by veteran Hungarian journalist and former Burchett compatriot, Tibor Meray, On Burchett (2008).	2
Rebel Journalism (2007) is an anthology of Burchett's writings edited by George Burchett (one of the journalist's three children) and Nick Shimmin. The book begins with two Forewords (by journalist John Pilger, and academic Gavan McCormack), and an Introduction by Shimmin. These provide some biographical details about Burchett, make a case for him being regarded as 'a genuinely independent' journalist, and outline why, during the Cold War, he was widely regarded as 'the 20^th century's Public Enemy Number One'.	3
The book comprises 30 extracts from Burchett's prodigious output of journalism and books. These are mostly arranged in chronological order, each with a brief editorial introduction variously providing biographical glimpses of Burchett and explaining historical contexts.	. . .

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