John Carroll is Professor of Sociology at La Trobe University in Melbourne. He has degrees in mathematics, economics and sociology from the universities of Melbourne and Cambridge. His recent books include Ego and Soul – the Modern West in Search of Meaning (1998), The Western Dreaming (2001), Terror – a Meditation on the Meaning of September 11 (2002), and The Wreck of Western Culture – Humanism Revisited (2004).

John has edited Intruders in the Bush – the Australian Quest for Identity (1982, 1992) and together with Robert Manne, Shutdown – the Failure of Economic Rationalism (1992).

John Carroll is also a frequent writer of essays and newspaper articles. He delivered one of the Alfred Deakin Federation Lectures in 2001. His work focuses on modern Western society, and in particular on the forces that alternatively hold it together and press towards disintegration. He chaired the Panel reviewing the National Museum of Australian in 2003.