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Broinowski, Alison: Is militarism in Australia’s DNA?

Alison Broinowski

Is militarism in Australia’s DNA?’ Pearls and Irritations, 6 February 2018 updated

Australians who don’t live in other countries don’t realise how our self-image differs from the perception, particularly in Asia, that we were militarists from the start. Australia’s tendency to resort to force is hard-wired, hard to eliminate, and goes back a long way.

Alison Broinowski is Honest History’s vice president and co-editor of The Honest History Book. Her chapter in the book (‘Australia’s tug of war: Militarism versus independence’) expands some of the arguments in the above piece.

Update 23 February 2018: historian Henry Reynolds makes similar points in Pearls and Irritations.