James Watson is a historian of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Australia. A graduate of the Australian National University’s School of History, he is the author of Asbestos Nation: The Story of the Most Dangerous Dust in Australia, The Dismissal from Below (with Frank Bongiorno), and a forthcoming biography of the archaeologist Robert Etheridge junior. His writing can be found in The Guardian, History Australia, and Labour History, and his work has been recognised by the Australian Historical Association’s Serle Award, and the ANU’s John Molony Prize in History and Patrick Troy Memorial Prize in Urban and Environmental Studies. He is currently writing a political history of the gross domestic product in Australia.