A. Phillips saying, 'We can only despair at the complacency of our politicians, for Australia does not educate her "democracy" and is severely inhibiting the flowering of her elite.'
In another McCalman said, 'We are poised on the edge of our age of abundance, which through automation could free the human spirit from the shackles of material necessity and solve the problems of world poverty and illiteracy, yet the system is preparing us for subordination, selfishness, irrationality and meaninglessness.'
[9] Frank Moorhouse, in his 2004 Griffith Review essay, "Welcome back Bakunin – Life chances in Australia: some notes of discomfort", referred to McCalman's 1993 book, Journeyings as "classic study of privilege".
By analysing the individuals in the Australian Who's Who 1998, McCalman showed that private schools dominated, that the "old boys club" prevailed.
[11][12] Knight's first book at Hyland House was Wendy Lowenstein's significant work of social history, Weevils in the Flour.