The publication of Power Without Glory and its success has been credited as being linked to the creation of the Australasian Book Society, which Hardy was key to founding.

The novel follows West's life as he rises to be a highly ambitious businessman and corrupt politician, as a powerbroker for the Australian Labor Party.

West's relationship with Communism is a hateful one, and he heavily finances the efforts of the (real life) anti-communist, Roman Catholic B.

The novel can be considered a Roman à clef, or a novel in which many of the characters correlate with real-life figures of the time, including Victorian Premier Sir Thomas Bent and Prime Minister James Scullin.

The following list attempts to align Power Without Glory characters with real historical persons who may have been inspirational to the author.

Hardy was tried for criminal libel in 1951 on the basis of the depiction in the novel of West's wife having an affair but he was acquitted by jury, after putting a number of arguments and cross-examining witnesses.

The case attracted enormous publicity, coinciding as it did with the anti-Communist referendum and served mainly to give the novel and any negative portrayal of Wren greater prominence.

In The Hard Way, Hardy denied ever having spoken to any member of the Wren family during his extensive research for the book, claiming the affair was entirely fictional.