Blewett received a Rhodes Scholarship and studied PPE at Jesus College, Oxford between 1957 and 1959 for a further BA (later converted to a Master of Arts).

[3] The book was very well received, described by reviewers "as one of the most substantial achievements of recent historical psephology" and "an extremely impressive monograph using practically every possible technique at the disposal of the professional historian".

[4][5] In 1974 Blewett was appointed professor of politics at Flinders University in South Australia, a position he held until 1977 when he ran for parliament.

Returning to Australia in 1998, he became President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and a visiting professor of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney.

[9] The South Australian coroner made no finding that her death was accidental,[10] and in his 1999 memoir A Cabinet Diary, Blewett said that his wife "took her own life in October 1988".

[11] Blewett revealed he was homosexual in a May 2000 issue of The Age's Good Weekend magazine, which profiled his relationship with long-term partner Robert Brain, whom he had met as a university student 50 years previously.