Jim Cairns is a familiar sight around the markets of Melbourne, seated at a table stacked with copies of his latest book. It seems an unlikely occupation for a man who was once the driving force and major thinker in the Labor Party Left - a man who reached the positions of Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer in Australia's most reformist government under Gough Whitlam. Keeper of the Faith reassesses the part Cairns played in shaping Australian public life. In tracing his ideological and political rivalry with Whitlam, it challenges the popular nostalgia that surrounds his former leader.