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In 1970, McQueen wrote ''A New Britannia'', an historical analysis of the emergence and development of the Australian labour movement. It influentially<ref name="auto1"/> argued that the history of the Australian labour movement, from colonisation to [[Australian federation]] (1788-1901), should be understood as an extension of [[Imperialism]]<ref>Lenin, V I 1899/1964, The Development of Capitalism in Russia, Progress Publishers, Moscow.</ref> within the [[British Empire]]. The argument challenged existing account of the labour movement emerging from the Australian Old Left, which had mythologised the nation-building and democratic nature of the movement. In seeking to challenge accounts of Australian history presented in the Old Left, McQueen established the grounds to contest the Whig tradition in Australian scholarship.<ref name="auto3"/> He identified that British imperialism cannot be separated from the experience of capitalism in Australia, and that Australian identity should be reconsidered in light of the role that racism and [[Patriarchy]] had played in development of the Australian labour movement.<ref name="auto3"/> Together with an application of British New Left theorists, [[Perry Anderson]]<ref>Anderson, P 1964, "The Origins of the Present Crisis", New Left Review, Vol. 23, viewed 16 September 2016, {{cite web |url=https://newleftreview.org/I/23/perry-anderson-origins-of-the-present-crisis |title=Perry Anderson: Origins of the Present Crisis. New Left Review I/23, January-February 1964 |access-date=20 April 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420151214/https://newleftreview.org/I/23/perry-anderson-origins-of-the-present-crisis |archive-date=20 April 2017}}.</ref> and [[Tom Nairn]],<ref>Nairn, T 1964, "The Nature of the Labour Party", New Left Review, Vol. 27, No. 38, viewed 29 September 2016, {{cite web |url=https://newleftreview.org/I/27/tom-nairn-the-nature-of-the-labour-party-part-i |title=Tom Nairn: The Nature of the Labour Party (Part I). New Left Review I/27, September-October 1964 |access-date=20 April 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420160707/https://newleftreview.org/I/27/tom-nairn-the-nature-of-the-labour-party-part-i |archive-date=20 April 2017}}.</ref> the approach redefined the nature of Australian historical enquiry, which would prove to be influential in the discipline of history.<ref name="auto1"/>
Receptions of the book were mixed. Terry Irving in reviewing A New Britannia, highlighted the work’s theoretical legacy, but also the need to produce a more developed theoretical engagement. He stated that A New Britannia "Will provoke angry discussion, but I hope it will also provoke the new left to develop the methodology necessary to write a new history".<ref>Irving, T 1970, "Head-Standing", Bulletin, 12 Dec, pp. 55–57</ref> This observation would influence the development of another hallmark of the Australian New Left, [[Class Structure in Australian History]].<ref>Irving, T & Connell, R 1979, Class Structure in Australian History, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne.</ref><ref>Williams-Brooks, Llewellyn (2016). "Radical Theories of Capitalism in Australia", Honours Thesis, University of Sydney, viewed 20 April 2017</ref> The [[Papua New Guinea Post-Courier]] said, 'Mr Humphrey McQueen is a very angry young man, and there is plenty of justification for this in Australia.'<ref>Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, 18 December, 1970, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250250200?searchTerm=humphrey%20mcqueen</ref> The [[Canberra Times]] said, 'In order to encompass such a wide range McQueen has obviously left gaps in his argument, but this matters little... He is concerned to show that the projection of radicalism and nationalism into socialism and anti-imperialism is mythical. This he does, as others have done, but will such attacks ever kill the myth?'<ref>The Canberra Times, 12 December, 1970, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110443365?searchTerm=humphrey%20mcqueen</ref> [[Rowan Cahill]] in [[Tribune (Australian newspaper)|Tribune]] said, 'The trouble is when you dash around frantically from one battlefield to another, like as not you'll end up shooting the wrong people. I believe this is what he has done... McQueen notes that revolutionaries in power have sometimes distorted history in order to stay there; I add the note that in attempting to search out a strategy for coming to power we have to be careful that something similar is not also done.'<ref>Tribune, 16 December, 1970, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237507574?searchTerm=humphrey%20mcqueen</ref> The journalist W.A. Wood in Tribune attacked the book calling McQueen 'Mr Justice McQueen'.<ref>Tribune, 19 May, 1971, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237868128?searchTerm=humphrey%20mcqueen</ref>
==Bibliography==
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