CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Bob Gould (activist)

Australian activist, bookstore owner

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ4932583 ↗
Source-derived summary

Robert Stephen "Bob" Gould (1937 – 22 May 2011) was an Australian activist and bookseller. He was a leader of the anti-conscription movement, and of protests against Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, in the 1960s. He went on to become a successful second-hand bookseller.

Politics and activism

Gould first came to public attention in 1966 as Convenor of the Vietnam Action Campaign, a group opposed to conscription and participation in the Vietnam War. Gould was already being described as a "habitual protester". By 1969 Gould was seen as having influence over Labor Clubs at the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales and Macquarie University.

Gould went on to fight for many other issues, including Irish civil rights, Indonesian atrocities in East Timor, and the war on Iraq. He was a prolific writer on the many causes in which he believed. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) held a file on Gould that ran to 8000 pages.

He inspired organisations like the scandalously named but nobly aspirational SCREW (the Society for the Cultivation of Revolution Everywhere) and the more sober High School Students Against the Vietnam War.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Bob Gould (activist)” as australian activist, bookstore owner. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gould, activist and Australian.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1937, 2011, 1966, 1969—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1937-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Gould, activist and Australian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Bob Gould (activist)”, the useful work is to connect “australian activist, bookstore owner” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4932583. VIAF identifies the subject as 93169543. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1937, 2011, 1966 and 1969.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Bob Gould (activist)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Bob Gould (activist) primary sources, Bob Gould (activist) archive and Gould research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bob Gould (activist)”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Bob Gould (activist)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.