Beaumont, Joan Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2013 The Great War is, for many Australians, the event that defined our nation. The larrikin diggers, trench warfare, and the landing at Gallipoli have…
Search results for: Broken Nation
What First Nations people said about invasion, the Frontier Wars and sovereignty: extracts from the Referendum Council report 2017
What First Nations people said about invasion, the Frontier Wars and sovereignty: extracts from the Referendum Council report 2017 Recent controversy about what was or was not included in the Uluru Statement somewhat missed an important point: the strength and…
Broinowski, Alison: Is Australia’s foreign and defence policy machinery broken beyond repair?
Alison Broinowski* ‘Is Australia’s foreign and defence policy machinery broken beyond repair?’ Honest History, 17 October 2018 Alison Broinowski reviews Clinton Fernandes, Island off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy Australia’s fundamental interests have endured…
Clark, Anna: On listening to new national storytellers
Clark, Anna ‘Friday essay: on listening to new national storytellers’, The Conversation, 2 September 2016 The author reminds us that ‘each piece of history has a message and context that depends on who wrote it and when. As the US…
Gamut of emotions: the Home Front at the National Museum
‘Gamut of emotions: the Home Front at the National Museum’, Honest History, 12 May 2015 Michael Piggott reviews the National Museum of Australia’s exhibition, The Home Front. Here’s a challenge to think about over the next ten minutes. If you…
Two views of World War I: War Memorial and National Library
‘Two views of World War I: sight-bites and Keepsakes‘, Honest History, 3 February 2015 David Stephens reviews the refurbished World War I galleries at the Australian War Memorial and the Keepsakes exhibition at the National Library of Australia. (A further…
Honest History list: seven nation-shaping events before Gallipoli
Some Australians say the Australian nation was ‘born’ at Gallipoli. Others hedge their bets by suggesting our nationhood was ‘affirmed’ there or that we ‘came of age’. The most extreme views imply that an effusion of blood is necessary before…
Gammage, Bill: The Broken Years
Bill Gammage The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War, Penguin Books, Ringwood, Vic., 1975; first published ANU Press 1974; illustrated edition Penguin 1990; illustrated paperback edition Melbourne University Publishing 2010; other editions The groundbreaking use of 1000 soldiers’…
Piggott, Michael & David Stephens: Constitution Day: an old Queen and a new nation
Michael Piggott and David Stephens* ‘Constitution Day: an old Queen and a new nation’, Honest History Newsletter No. 4, August 2013 Of all the notable days in the Australian calendar Constitution Day, 9 July, is the least known but one…
Waterford, Jack: Our glorious tradition of being not very good at fighting wars
Jack Waterford ‘Our glorious tradition of being not very good at fighting wars‘, Canberra Times, 26 January 2024; pdf from our subscription; also in Pearls and Irritations (no paywall). Update 29 January 2024: two articles taking a wide view of Australia…
From the Honest History vault: how far from the tree does Murdoch fruit fall?
We first posted this in 2016 and have reposted it since but it is very apt again, speaking as it does to how characteristics are nurtured and passed on, mentors and governments brown-nosed and seduced – and sometimes perhaps controlled…
Lest We Forget#7: If you hear the Murdoch Press beating the drums of war in 2022, remember they have form
If the current election is to turn khaki, if the Defence Minister (or his shadow) wants support for spending more of GDP on defence, if the two sides try to outdo each other on support for the American Alliance, you…
Lest We Forget#5: Recognising our common humanity by doing commemoration in a less Australia-centric way: Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial
Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial has had two editions (2016 and 2017) and has been downloaded more than 3000 times by school students and their teachers. We would love to have done more editions to keep…
Stephens, David: Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial: what chance is there that the new bigger, Memorial will let these stories be told?
David Stephens* ‘Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial: what chance is there that the new bigger, Memorial will let these stories be told?’, Honest History, 26 July 2021 updated Update 25 September 2021: Two months on and…
Stanley, Peter: The most important book on Australia and the Great War
Peter Stanley* ‘The most important book on Australia and the Great War’, Honest History, 7 October 2018 Peter Stanley reviews Peter Cochrane’s Best We Forget: The War for White Australia, 1914-18 The Great War centenary has seen a goodly trickle…
Centenary Watch June-July 2018
Update 4 August 2018: War Memorial consultations on its proposed extensions: ‘Look on my Works’ The Memorial announces consultations; Honest History puts some questions. Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’, a pithy comment on the urge to leave a legacy in stone. Update 28…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (35): As enlistments dwindle, PM Hughes reminds people there is a war on
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (35): As enlistments dwindle, PM Hughes reminds people there is a war on’, Honest History, 16 March 2018 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series The second conscription referendum in December 1917 may have looked like the…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (32): Alfred Deakin in retirement supports conscription
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (32): Alfred Deakin in retirement supports conscription’, Honest History, 19 December 2017 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Deakin in his prime (Wikipedia) By the end of 1917, former prime minister Alfred Deakin had been out…
Beyond the poppies row on row: Remembrance Day is a good day to think
Remembrance Day (Armistice Day, if you prefer) – like Anzac Day, Christmas, Easter, Passover, Ramadan, Diwali, Melbourne Cup Day, and other regular ceremonial and commemorative occasions – triggers virtually automatic reactions among many of us. Poppies, stories of old Diggers,…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (29): All at once – another conscription vote and news of Bolshevik revolution
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (29): All at once – another conscription vote and news of Bolshevik revolution’, Honest History, 9 November 2017 updated The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Another run at conscription The possibility of a second conscription referendum…
Centenary Watch September-October 2017
Update 28 September 2017 updated: War Memorial Director Brendan Nelson at the Press Club: speech or performance art? Polygon Wood ‘remembered’ We said (21 September, below) we would look more closely at Dr Nelson’s 19 September National Press Club speech…
A war fought and felt around the world (review of Ariotti & Bennett, ed.)
‘A war fought and felt around the world’ (review of Ariotti & Bennett, ed.), Honest History, 4 September 2017 Martin Crotty* reviews Australians and the First World War: Local-Global Connections and Contexts edited by Kate Ariotti and James E. Bennett…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (28): More on the 1917 Great Strike in Australia
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (28): More on the 1917 Great Strike in Australia’, Honest History, 27 August 2017 Update 28 August 2017: Unions NSW advises of its exhibition on the Great Strike. See comment below – and three pictures…
Lockhart, Greg: What were we fighting for at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front?
Greg Lockhart ‘What were we fighting for at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front?’ (Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5), Pearls and Irritations, 24-28 July 2017 updated Update 15 August 2017: Lockhart’s further thoughts,…
Honest History: Some extracts from Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial
Honest History ‘Some extracts from Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial, Second edition, June 2017’, Honest History, 25 July 2017 updated We have produced the second edition of Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial.…
Centenary Watch June-July 2017
Update 5 July 2017: Enlistment news from a century ago: Australians prefer not to be there We run this graph from time to time (courtesy of Joan Beaumont, Broken Nation, where the original graph and Ernest Scott’s figures appear in…
Stephens, David: Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (23): ‘A wartime police state’: Australia’s War Precautions Act during the war for freedom
David Stephens ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (23): ‘A wartime police state’: Australia’s War Precautions Act during the war for freedom’, Honest History, 19 May 2017 updated The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Every country at war takes measures to protect…
Flora, Steve & David Stephens: Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (21): Australia reacts to the February 1917 Revolution in Russia: a look at newspapers of the day
Steve Flora & David Stephens The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (21): Australia reacts to the February 1917 Revolution in Russia: a look at newspapers of the day’, Honest History, 21 March 2017 Australia during the…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (20): The soldiers’ vote denied: making sense of the first conscription plebiscite
The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (20): The soldiers’ vote denied: making sense of the first conscription plebiscite’, Honest History, 28 February 2017 During 2016 our ‘Divided sunburnt country’ posts (linked above) tracked events in the…
Cashen, Phil: Enlistments in the second half of 1916: background characteristics Part 2 – religion, units and service history
Phil Cashen ‘103. Enlistments in the second half of 1916: background characteristics Part 2 – religion, units and service history‘, Shire at War, 5 February 2017 We have often linked to the sterling work of Phil Cashen of the Shire…
Centenary Watch December 2016-January 2017
Update 13 December 2016: Peak Anzac passes as ministers come and go; elsewhere in this edition Peak Anzac passes as ministers come and go We have forgotten who coined the term ‘Peak Anzac’, but we know what it means: the…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (18): The Prime Minister is determined to carry on
The Divided Sunburnt Country series ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (18): The Prime Minister is determined to carry on’, Honest History, 26 November 2016 The referendum (plebiscite) had been held on 28 October. Prime Minister Hughes was the guest of…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (11): The Case for Universal Service
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (11): The Case for Universal Service‘, Honest History, 8 September 2016 The Divided Sunburnt Country series When Prime Minister WM Hughes announced the first conscription referendum there was already plenty of literature in circulation…
Lord Northcliffe (egged on by Keith Murdoch) talks up the Anzacs after Pozieres: Honest History document
‘“These young giants from the furthest corner of the earth”: Lord Northcliffe (egged on by Keith Murdoch) talks up the Anzacs after Pozières: Honest History document’, Honest History, 30 August 2016 The document below is taken from The Sun (Sydney)…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (10): Prime Minister Hughes announces the first conscription referendum, 100 years ago today
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (10): Prime Minister Hughes announces the first conscription referendum, 100 years ago today’, Honest History, 30 August 2016 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Just after 3.53 pm on Wednesday, 30 August 1916, on a cold…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (9): Billy Hughes girds his loins for the conscription battle
The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series On 31 July 1916, Prime Minister WM Hughes returned to Australia (Fremantle) after six months in Britain and Europe, where he had raised Australia’s profile in Allied war councils. He spoke at the Melbourne Town…
Review note: Irish Easter Rising commemoration has lessons for Australia
‘Review note: Irish Easter Rising commemoration has lessons for Australia’, Honest History, 23 June 2016 I am just one-eighth Irish and by no means an expert in being Irish or in Irish history. But Honest History’s recent collecting of material…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (4): AIF enlistment starts to fall
The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series One hundred years ago this month, as Anzac troops settled in on the Western Front – 600 had been killed by the end of June, enlistments in the AIF dropped to their lowest monthly total…
Steele, Colin: How The Sex Lives of Australians upset a PM and the PM’s Literary Awards
Steele, Colin ‘How The Sex Lives of Australians upset a PM and the PM’s Literary Awards‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 June 2016 updated Update 23 June 2016: Patrick Allington in The Conversation discusses the issues. The author of this article…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18: a new series from Honest History
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18: a new series from Honest History’, Honest History, 7 June 2016 updated Dorothea Mackellar in theatrical costume, 1918 (Wikimedia Commons/SLNSW) In 1904, Dorothea Mackellar, then aged 19, wrote her poem ‘My country’, which included…
Tendering for the knight: film-makers bid to document Sir John Monash for the green fields of France
Regular readers of Honest History will have followed our coverage of the proposed Sir John Monash Interpretive Centre to be built next to the Australian memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France. We have described the Centre as a boastful Aussie boondoggle.…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (2): the War Census
The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series ________________ In 1915 Australians took part in a special census, called the War Census, ostensibly to help organise the country’s resources for total war but effectively to prepare for the introduction of conscription for war…
Divided sunburnt country (1): Australia 1916-18: recruiting in Gippsland
This post is by way of being a ‘soft launch’ for a new Honest History series. We are using the series to explore a crucial question: whether what happened at home in Australia during the Great War was actually more…
Singing country: the importance of the song On every Anzac Day
David Stephens ‘Singing country: the musical legacy of David Morrison, Australian of the Year – and a straw in the wind at the Australian War Memorial?’, Honest History, 2 February 2016 Before David Morrison became Australian of the Year he…
‘Visitation’ numbers at the Australian War Memorial since 1991: is this joint really jumpin’?
David Stephens ‘“Visitation” numbers at the Australian War Memorial since 1991: is this joint really jumpin’?’ Honest History, 2 February 2016 updated The title of this piece needs some explanation. First, ‘visitation’. The author thought this word meant the visit…
Going to the Flicks, Brisbane, November 1915
‘Going to the Flicks, Brisbane, November 1915: highlights reel’, Honest History, 1 December 2015 Brisbane Courier 26 November 1915 26 November 1915 was a Friday and it was the final night of the ‘stirring military program’ at the Strand Theatre…
War Census 1915 (Part I)
‘The War Census of 1915: Honest History highlights reel (Part I)’, Honest History, 7 July 2015 Some historians and observers say that Gallipoli saw the birth of the Australian nation as men flocked to the colours. Others argue that the…
Anzac and Anzackery: Kogarah speech
David Stephens ‘Anzac and Anzackery: speech to Kogarah Historical Society, 14 May 2015′, Honest History, 9 June 2015 I acknowledge the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this land, and their elders past and present. I…
The ‘Great’ War
Richard Keys* ‘The “Great” War’, Honest History, 2 June 2015 Brendan Nelson shamefully described the Australian War Memorial as holding the soul of Australia. Julia Gillard said Gallipoli defined us as a nation. With the government spending millions on Anzac…
Gallipoli 1915: a century on – conference report
Peter Stanley ‘Gallipoli 1915: a century on – conference report’, Honest History, 14 April 2015 Those interested in Gallipoli had been anticipating the conference convened jointly by the Australian National University and the Australian War Memorial and held in Canberra…
Colebatching: a previous joint winner on the PM’s award
Peter Stanley, Honest History President and previous joint winner of the Prime Minister’s Award for History, has written on The Drum about the work of the most recent joint winner, Hal GP Colebatch (Australia’s Secret War). Colebatch’s Australia’s Secret War…
Honest History supporter Joan Beaumont wins PM’s prize
Honest History distinguished supporter, Professor Joan Beaumont of ANU, has shared the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History. The award was for Joan’s book, Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War. She shared the prize with Hal Colebatch, who wrote…
Newton, Douglas: Hell-Bent: Australia’s Leap into the Great War
Douglas Newton Hell-Bent: Australia’s Leap into the Great War, Scribe, Brunswick, Vic, 2014 Most histories of Australia’s Great War rush their readers into the trenches. This history is very different. For the first time, it examines events closely, even hour-by-hour,…
Things come apart: The War that Changed Us, ep. 3
By episode 3 of The War that Changed Us, we’ve fully adjusted to its dramatised documentary approach, its repeated home front-front line segues, its six main actors’ role types, the expert commentators, colourised footage and stills, narrating voice-over hinting at…
Atkins, Jon: Gallipoli Centenary Peace Campaign
Atkins, Jon ‘Gallipoli Centenary Peace Campaign: its genesis and objectives’, Honest History, 1 September 2014 This article describes one example of community activity which is questioning the received, official view of Anzac, as set out in, for example, the Australian…
Beaumont, Joan, et al: Asia today – 1914 redux?
Beaumont, Joan, Evelyn Goh, Michael Wesley, Hugh White, ‘Asia today – 1914 redux?’ ANU School of International Political and Strategic Studies seminar, Canberra, 18 March 2014 Notes of the seminar were prepared by David Stephens. Read more… 258 Asia Today…
E-Newsletter no. 11, 12 March 2014
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 Donate to Honest History: Pay Pal now available Write for Honest History: contact us to ask how Follow us on Twitter @honesthistory1 New on honesthistory.net.au The Honest History committee addresses honesty and dishonesty Doug Hynd on…
Piggott, Michael: Listening to ANZAC Voices
Michael Piggott (linking to an Appendix on commemorating the survivors which includes confronting images) In The Pyramid: The Kurt Wallander Stories (Vintage Books, 2000) Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell has his famous protagonist struggling to give a report. ‘It’s a…
Jauncey meets Mephistopheles (18 February 2014)
In November 2013 I presented a keynote address to the biennial conference convened by the energetic Narratives of War Research Group of the University of South Australia. In it I compared Australia’s memory of war with that of various countries…
E-newsletter No. 9, 5 February 2014
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 NEW on the HONEST HISTORY website Hugh White from ANU writes and talks about Australians’ attitude to war and how it has got us into awkward situations in the past and may do so again in…
E-Newsletter no.7, 4 December 2013
ISSN:2202-5561 © Honest History Inc. 2014 New content at Honest History since last e-Newsletter Subscribers will have received our special Newsletter recording the official website launch, and pointing to Paul Daley’s launch speech exploring how authors deal with myths, linking this to…
Jauncey opens up (24 October 2013)
When the Honest History enterprise was just getting under way one supporter pointed out how great it would be to have in one place – a repository, indeed – a resource of material that put the Anzac myth under the…
From the Honest History vault: Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia (a review)
We first posted this in 2018 and have re-run it a couple of times since. Again, it seems apposite in the week before the Voice vote, when whitefeller attitudes to blackfellers (and vice versa) seem to be front and centre.…
Gammage, Bill: For Anzac 2023: Michael Thomas Kennedy: from Myall, Victoria, to Sens, France
Bill Gammage* ‘For Anzac 2023: Michael Thomas Kennedy: from Myall, Victoria, to Sens, France’, Honest History, 24 April 2023 [This article was originally a talk at Alliance Francaise, Turner, ACT, 18 March 2016, to mark the Centenary of the AIF…
The Wire: Australian War Memorial set to provide greater recognition of the Frontier Wars
The Wire ‘Australian War Memorial set to provide greater recognition of the Frontier Wars‘, The Wire, 20 January 2023 updated Update 24 February 2023: Important article by Bronwyn Carlson and Terri Farrelly in The Conversation: ‘Friday essay: “killed by Natives”.…
Lockhart, Greg: Australia and the Vietnam War: Part 2 – No-win situation
Greg Lockhart* ‘Australia and the Vietnam War: Part 2 – No-win situation’, Honest History, 20 December 2022 Greg Lockhart is a leading historian of Australia’s Vietnam War (Nation in Arms: the Origins of the People’s Army of Vietnam; The Minefield: an…
Stephens, David: Walking backwards for Christmas: Estimates Committee transcript shows the War Memorial’s Frontier Wars retreat
David Stephens* ‘Walking backwards for Christmas**: Estimates Committee transcript shows the War Memorial’s Frontier Wars retreat’, Honest History, 28 November 2022 updated Update 3 May 2023: FOI claim on War Memorial delivers heavily redacted version of Memorial’s briefing notes for…
Media roundup on Australian Frontier Wars at the Australian War Memorial: RSL grumbles; united front crumbles
Update 4 November 2022: Honest History/Heritage Guardians analysis of material provided by Memorial under Freedom of Information. ‘War Memorial Council Chair, Dr Brendan Nelson, made some remarks on 29 September about the Memorial’s intentions regarding the Frontier Wars. Since then,…
Wright, Claire EF: Australian resilience in 1929-32 has relevance to post-Pandemic Australia, as Joan Beaumont’s strong synthesis shows
Claire EF Wright* ‘Australian resilience in 1929-32 has relevance to post-Pandemic Australia, as Joan Beaumont’s strong synthesis shows’, Honest History, 5 September 2022 Claire EF Wright reviews Joan Beaumont’s Australia’s Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War…
From the Honest History vault: Review of Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia (2018), edited by Anita Heiss
Just after Garma and at a time when the Voice is growing, along with the push to properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars, it seemed like a good chance to run again our review of the ground-breaking collection,…
From the Honest History vault: The collected works of Australian War Memorial Director, Matt Anderson PSM: Will they become part of the pushback?
Australian War Memorial Director, Matt Anderson, was featured in yesterday’s Canberra Times, talking about himself, why the Memorial needs to be expanded by 2.5 hectares (more space than the MCG), and how it deals (or doesn’t) with the Frontier Wars.…
Stephens, David: An historical agenda for the Albanese Government
David Stephens* ‘An historical agenda for the Albanese Government’, Honest History, 7 June 2022 updated History is not just a matter for historians, museums and school teachers. How we deal with our past shapes the present and future of all…
Lest We Forget#2: Paul Daley takes the jingoism out of patriotism
Lest We Forget has come to mean ‘Remember’, or even ‘Remember, or else!’, in relation to the commemoration of men and women killed in war. The phrase was originally meant as a warning against imperial over-reach. Today, however, it comes…
Stephens, David: Townsville Veterans’ Wellness Centre and Afghanistan War Memorial Gardens, Brisbane: avoiding bigger issues?
David Stephens* ‘Townsville Veterans’ Wellness Centre and Afghanistan War Memorial Gardens, Brisbane: avoiding bigger issues?’, Honest History, 20 October 2021 updated Two press releases this week from Federal Veterans’ Affairs Minister, Andrew Gee, tell of two openings in Queensland. They…
Newton, Douglas: Private Ryan and the Lost Peace: A Defiant Soldier and the Struggle against the Great War
Douglas Newton Private Ryan and the Lost Peace: A Defiant Soldier and the Struggle against the Great War, Longueville Media, Sydney, 2021 Imagine the Great War ending early, in 1915, or 1916, or even 1917. Imagine round-table negotiations and a…
Stephens, David: Everyman as soldier: how men in suits in drawing rooms conned the people – and their families – into fighting on
David Stephens* ‘Everyman as soldier: how men in suits in drawing rooms conned the people – and their families – into fighting on’, Honest History, 28 May 2021 David Stephens reviews Douglas Newton’s Private Ryan and the Lost Peace: A…
Myrtle, John: Australian armed robbers Russell Cox and Ray Denning: it was a different world then
John Myrtle* ‘Australian armed robbers Russell Cox and Ray Denning: it was a different world then’, Honest History, 11 September 2020 John Myrtle reviews Mark Dapin’s Public Enemies: Russell “Mad Dog” Cox, Ray Denning and the Golden Age of Armed…
Stephens, David: New Australian War Memorial Director’s children’s war books give some hints to his thinking
David Stephens* ‘New War Memorial Director’s children’s war books give some hints to his thinking’, Honest History, 31 March 2020 updated The new Director of the Australian War Memorial, Matthew Anderson PSM, commences duty on 14 April. He comes to…
Broinowski, Richard: Pine Gap, part of the United States war machine, should not be a non-issue in Australia
Richard Broinowski* ‘Pine Gap, part of the United States war machine, should not be a non-issue in Australia’, Honest History, 9 September 2019 Richard Broinowski reviews Tom Gilling’s Project Rainfall: The Secret History of Pine Gap In his 1980 book…
Broinowski, Alison: Unreliable protection from unnecessary enemies: Scappatura on the US Lobby and us
Alison Broinowski* ‘Unreliable protection from unnecessary enemies: Scappatura on the US Lobby and us’, Honest History, 25 June 2019 Alison Broinowski reviews Vince Scappatura, The US Lobby and Australian Defence Policy A blast of fresh air blew through the Australian…
Heritage Guardians: a campaign against the (now) $548m extensions to the Australian War Memorial
Heritage Guardians This campaign has been wrangled by Heritage Guardians, a small committee. The members of the committee were: the late Brendon Kelson, former Director, Australian War Memorial Dr Charlotte Palmer, committee member, Medical Association for Prevention of War (ACT…
Honest History review roundup: the books we wrote up in 2018
It’s been a great year for history publishing in Australia. Honest History has had the privilege of publishing reviews of materials that discuss, interrogate and eloquently distill the multi-faceted realities of our country’s history. From Diane Bell’s stirring reflection on…
Davis, Glen: By-law 418: an episode in the anti-Vietnam War movement in Victoria
Glen Davis* ‘By-law 418: an episode in the anti-Vietnam War movement in Victoria’, Honest History, 17 December 2018 We are approaching the 50th anniversary (9 April 2019) of the successful campaign to defeat by-law 418. This campaign of civil disobedience…
Stephens, David: Paul Daley’s On Patriotism: an appreciation from a fellow-traveller
David Stephens* ‘Paul Daley’s On Patriotism: an appreciation from a fellow-traveller’, Honest History, 16 December 2018 updated This is not really a book review, though a book has set it off. The book is Paul Daley’s On Patriotism, actually an…
Haigh, Bruce: The ANZACS: ransacked by the Right
Bruce Haigh ‘The ANZACS: ransacked by the Right‘, Independent Australia, 24 November 2018 Retired diplomat writes that the Anzac myth has been constructed to serve conservative interests. Australia’s default position is to the right of centre. We are just emerging…
Honest History 5 years symposium: ‘Presenting, choosing, measuring, changing history’
Update 20 November 2018: Francesca Beddie of Professional Historians Australia NSW writes about the symposium. More than one hundred souls turned out for the Honest History symposium in Canberra on 8 November. The tone was set by a heartfelt and…
Fernandes, Clinton: Island off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy
Clinton Fernandes Island off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2018 Island off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy is an unprecedented 230-year Australian study that reveals…
Centenary Watch September-November 2018
Update 28 September 2018: Centenary Watch out; Minister Chester stays in place; Director Nelson makes some speeches; buy a piece of the famous MV Krait; Anzac Bears in schools; poppies and a beam of light Centenary Watch out As we approach…
McKenna, Mark: First Things First and finding a way through
Mark McKenna* ‘First Things First and finding a way through’, Honest History, 12 June 2018 Mark McKenna reviews Griffith Review 60: First Things First As editor Julianne Schultz explains in her introduction, ‘First Things First’ – a title suggested by…
Stephens, David: This book about growing up Aboriginal in Australia is not just one for whitefellers of a certain age
David Stephens ‘This book about growing up Aboriginal in Australia is not just one for whitefellers of a certain age’, Honest History, 20 April 2018 David Stephens reviews Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, edited by Anita Heiss It makes a…
Flanagan, Richard: ‘Our politics is a dreadful black comedy’ – press club speech in full
Richard Flanagan ‘”Our politics is a dreadful black comedy” – press club speech in full’, Guardian Australia, 19 April 2018 Man Booker Prize winner considers the possibilities for authoritarian politics around the world, before moving on to look at whether…
Shield, John: Between Sky and Sea: Herz Bergner’s Australian Yiddish novel about the Holocaust and the search for the Promised Land
John Shield[1] ‘Between Sky and Sea: Herz Bergner’s Australian Yiddish novel about the Holocaust and the search for the Promised Land’, Honest History, 30 March 2018 This is the second of John Shield’s articles exploring the Text Classics list. The…
Myrtle, John: Ambivalent return: how Australia treated former prisoners of war after 1945
John Myrtle* ‘Ambivalent return: how Australia treated former prisoners of war after 1945’, Honest History, 6 March 2018 John Myrtle reviews The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia, by Christina Twomey Christina Twomey, Professor of History at Monash University, is…
Cornering posterity: support for the Internet Archive, a way in to a breathtaking amount of information
Honest History has always been taken with the suggestion that postings to the Internet are the 21st century version of what used to be said of journalism – ‘the first draft of history’. But who makes sure all the good…
Piggott, Michael: Pompey Elliott’s war reporting, letters and diaries reveal a complex man and soldier
Michael Piggott* ‘Pompey Elliott’s war reporting, letters and diaries reveal a complex man and soldier’, Honest History, 25 October 2017 Michael Piggott reviews Pompey Elliott at War: In His Own Words Fifteen years ago, Ross McMullin published his massive and…
Alexander, Kristen: Captives of war make a compelling story of World War II
Kristen Alexander* ‘Captives of war make a compelling story of World War II’, Honest History, 22 October 2017 Kristen Alexander reviews Clare Makepeace’s Captives of War: British Prisoners of War in Europe in the Second World War Clare Makepeace’s grandfather…
Shield, John: Dylan Voller, Kinchela and a long history of silence
John Shield* ‘Dylan Voller, Kinchela and a long history of silence’, Honest History, 9 October 2017 On 17 November, the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory will deliver its final report. No doubt…
Abjorensen, Norman: The art of being prime minister (review of Strangio, ’t Hart & Walter)
Norman Abjorensen ‘The art of being prime minister‘, Inside Story, 29 September 2017 Long review of Paul Strangio, Paul ’t Hart and James Walter, The Pivot of Power: Australian Prime Ministers and Political Leadership, 1949–2016, which is the second volume…
The past, choosing our history, and memorials: an issue in Charlottesville and many other places
‘Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You … can’t change history, but you can learn from it.’: President Trump, Twitter, 17 August 2017…
Honest History E-newsletter No. 45, 25 July 2017
ISSN: 2202-5561 © The Honest History Book: now into its second printing New on the Honest History website The generations of us: exploring interactions, overlaps and inflections: Michael Piggott reviews Australian Lives: an Intimate History, edited by Anisa Puri and Alistair Thomson…
The Wobblies at War (review of Cain)
‘The Wobblies at War’ (review of Cain), Honest History, 11 July 2017 Rowan Day* reviews Frank Cain’s The Wobblies at War: A History of the IWW and the Great War in Australia This is a republication of Frank Cain’s 1993…
Time-travelling millennials: Griffith Review 56
‘Time-travelling millennials: Griffith Review 56’, Honest History, 13 June 2017 Emily Gallagher* reviews Griffith Review 56: Millennials Strike Back There is no such thing as a normative childhood. Generations of children might share in a collection of culturally specific circumstances,…
Wallace, Donald M.: The Web of Empire (1902): highlights reel of a royal visit to Brisbane
Donald Mackenzie Wallace ‘The Web of Empire (1902): highlights reel of a royal visit to Brisbane’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Members of the Royal Family have visited Australia regularly since Prince Alfred was here in 1867. (He was shot…
Cain, Frank: The Petrov Affair and fake documents: another look
Frank Cain* ‘The Petrov Affair and fake documents: another look’, Honest History, 15 March 2017 In a previous edition of Honest History, David Stephens referred to fake news and the seeking by Dr HV Evatt, then Leader of the Opposition,…
Bown, Sharon: One Woman’s War and Peace
Sharon Bown One Woman’s War and Peace: A Nurse’s Journey in the Royal Australian Air Force, Exisle Publishing, Wollombi, NSW, 2016 In 1999, idealistic 23-year-old Registered Nurse Sharon Bown left her comfortable family life in Tasmania and joined the Royal…
Settling for less (review of Scates and Oppenheimer)
‘Settling for less’ (review of Scates and Oppenheimer), Honest History, 13 December 2016 Michael Piggott* reviews The Last Battle: Soldier Settlement in Australia, 1916-1939 by Bruce Scates and Melanie Oppenheimer At last the book is out. Its official genesis dates…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (19) The 1916 coal strike
The Divided Sunburnt Country series ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (19): The 1916 coal strike’, Honest History, 13 December 2016 ‘The strikes and upheavals, political and industrial, we see around us are the manifestations of a deliberate policy which aims at destroying…
While we are on the subject: four articles on aspects of democracy – and its possible future currency
Last Sunday we put up a post riffing off four articles which said something about the nature of politics. Without exactly saying so, we were talking about democratic politics and about how it can be a long, hard slog. We…
New views from a little way beyond Gallipoli (review of Scates & Frances ed., Beyond Gallipoli)
‘New views from a little way beyond Gallipoli’, Honest History, 21 November 2016 David Stephens reviews Beyond Gallipoli: New Perspectives on Anzac, edited by Raelene Frances and Bruce Scates This book is a collection of 15 papers (plus introduction) from…
‘That famous army of generous men’: some stories and reflections for Remembrance Day
Richard Reid* ‘”That famous army of generous men”: some stories and reflections for Remembrance Day’, Honest History, 11 November 2016 In early November 1993 I stood at 8.00 am in the misty cold of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Adelaide…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (16): Conscription miscellany – and mainstream avoidance
The Divided Sunburnt Country series ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (16): Conscription miscellany – and mainstream avoidance’, Honest History, 4 November 2016 updated Update 16 November 2016: review of Archer, et al, ed., The Conscription Conflict and the Great War.…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (15): Final thunderous appeals, pro and con, on the eve of the conscription plebiscite
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (15): Final thunderous appeals, pro and con, on the eve of the conscription plebiscite 100 years ago’, Honest History, 27 October 2016 The Divided Sunburnt Country series Pro Prime Minister Hughes’s final appeal appeared in…
Centenary Watch updates October-December 2016
[Links checked 17 November 2017 and all found to be live. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Update 2 December 2016: Holocaust exhibition at War Memorial…
Centenary Watch updates September-October 2016
[Links checked 17 November 2017 and all found to be live. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Updates 30 August 2016: Minister Tehan back in harness;…
Time and Bob Menzies’ essence: lifting the cover on Australia 1960
Humphrey McQueen ‘Time and Bob Menzies’ essence: lifting the cover on Australia 1960’, Honest History, 30 August 2016 Note: this article includes a photograph of an Indigenous Australian who has died Time magazine ‘Indignation’ and ‘hilarity’ jostled each other through…
Charles Bean’s legacy: UNSW Canberra conference, July 2016
Michael Piggott ‘”Charles Bean’s legacy”: UNSW Canberra conference, July 2016’, Honest History, 2 August 2016 For once in considering a conference, the curate’s egg judgment ‘good in parts’ doesn’t apply, though this conference did have parts and it was hosted…
Centenary Watch updates July-August 2016
[Links checked 17 November 2017 and all found to be live. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Update 15 August 2016: Australia’s Vietnam War – and…
Centenary Watch updates June-July 2016
[Links checked 16 November 2017 and all found to be live. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Update 13 July 2016: Official World War I memorial…
Centenary Watch updates April-June 2016
[Links checked 16 November 2017 and all found to be live. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Update 24 May 2016: Honest History sends copy of…
Holbrook, Carolyn: Anzac centenary and memorialisation: speech to PHA (Vic)
Carolyn Holbrook ‘Professional Historians Association Historically Speaking: Reflecting on the Anzac centenary and memorialisation (Emerald Hill Library and Heritage Centre, South Melbourne, 5 April 2016)’, Honest History, 13 April 2016 My work has centred on the history of how Australians…
Tout-Smith, Deborah: Anzac centenary and memorialisation: speech to PHA (Vic)
Deborah Tout-Smith ‘Professional Historians Association Historically Speaking series, 5 April 2016: Reflecting on the Anzac centenary and memorialisation’, Honest History, 13 April 2016 I’d like to begin my reflections by acknowledging the size of the audience for the World War…
Centenary Watch updates March-April 2016
[Links checked 16 November 2017 and all found to be live. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Update 22 April 2016: Glorifying the Anzac myth and…
Review note: Stephens and Seal’s Remembering the Wars
‘Review note: Stephens and Seal’s Remembering the Wars: Commemoration in Western Australian Communities‘, Honest History, 6 February 2016 Anyone who’s spent time in country Australia will have noticed the centrality of a war memorial to nearly every community. Recently, memorials…
Centenary Watch updates February-March 2016
[Links checked 16 November 2017 and all found to be live. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Update 4 March 2016: PM’s remembrance rhetoric and alleged…
Macken, Julie: Long journey to Nauru
Macken, Julie ‘The long journey to Nauru‘, New Matilda, 12 January 2016 Long article by former MSM (Financial Review) journalist on the history of Australian policy towards asylum seekers over the last 30 years or so. 30 years ago, it…
Scates, Bruce, Rebecca Wheatley & Laura James: 100 Stories
Scates, Bruce, Rebecca Wheatley & Laura James World War One: A History in 100 Stories, Penguin, Melbourne, 2015 A long-awaited product of a complex project to tell the stories of many people affected by the Great War. There is also…
No sign of Ataturk’s minister at Anzac, April-May 1934
‘Gold, rum but no sign of Ataturk’s minister at Anzac, April-May 1934’, Honest History, 1 December 2015 We return to the provenance of the famous ‘Ataturk words’ of 1934 – the ones commencing ‘Those heroes that shed their blood and…
Centenary Watch updates December 2015-January 2016
[Links checked 15 November 2017 and a few were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link…
A history man’s view of war (review of Tognolini)
‘A history man’s view of war’, Honest History, 18 November 2015 Derek Abbott* reviews A History Man’s Past & Other People’s Stories: A Shared Memoir. Part One: Other People’s Wars and Brothers, Part One: Gallipoli 1915, both by John Tognolini.…
Kevin, Tony: Legislating for War Powers Reform
Kevin, Tony ‘Legislating for War Powers Reform: a report‘, Australians for War Powers Reform, 23 October 2015 and updated This is a report of a seminar held at the Australian National University on 23 October. It is reprinted here in…
Centenary Watch updates October-November 2015
[Links checked 15 November 2017 and all were live. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Update 20 November 2015: missing the target in the AWM’s Great…
Less twaddling by the lake: three Canberra art exhibitions
David Stephens ‘Less twaddling by the lake: three art exhibitions in Canberra’, Honest History, 16 September 2015 The three exhibitions covered in this review offer a multi-hued picture of parts of our history. The first show, Reality in flames, has…
Honest History
Wominjeka! Yumalundi!* We pay respect to First Nations people and to their Elders past, present and emerging. This website was developed in Kamberri (Ngambri and Ngunnawal people) and Naarm (Kulin Nation) on land that always was and always will be…
Centenary Watch updates September 2015
[Links checked 15 November 2017 and a couple were found to be broken, due to the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Update…
Reality of war deja vu, including Long Tan 49
We presented these items in our e-Newsletter no. 28 earlier in the month on the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima-Nagasaki (and the 100th anniversary of Lone Pine). We wanted to run them through again. Also, given today’s 49th anniversary of Long…
e-Newsletter No.28, 4 August 2015
ISSN: 2202-5561 © New on the site (https://honesthistory.net.au/) Hiroshima-Nagasaki 70 and Lone Pine 100: images for two anniversaries History of unrest and turmoil: Barbara Carol Heaton on coal miners during World War II Hands on History kids program pulls some…
Centenary Watch updates August 2015
[Links checked 14 November 2017 and a couple were found to be broken, due to the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Update…
Centenary Watch updates July 2015
[Links checked 14 November 2017 and none were found to be broken. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where they find a link is broken. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH] Update 7 July 2015: Minister still…
Centenary Watch updates June 2015
[Links checked 13 November 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is…
Centenary Watch: May 2015
[Links checked 6 November 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is…
War in the long run
‘War in the long run’, Honest History, 12 May 2015 Derek Abbott* reviews William Philpott’s Attrition: Fighting the First World War The historiography of World War I is a bitterly contested area: a necessary war to defeat Prussian militarism; a…
Honest History poet: Mary Gilmore
‘Honest History poet: Mary Gilmore, two wars, four poems’, Honest History, 12 May 2015 Mary Gilmore (born Cameron) was born in 1865, spent a few years in South America seeking utopia, married and had a child, was a friend of…
Anzac Day, Gallipoli and Great War: futurological retrospective
David Faber* ‘Anzac Day, Gallipoli and the Great War: a futurological retrospective’, Honest History, 7 May 2015 Why are we liable/to die for survival?/Why is our nation/fighting? Mick Hucknell, ‘Simply Red’, 2011 The end of the soldier is not, as…
Centenary Watch: March 2015
[Links checked 2 November 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is…
Centenary Watch: February 2015
[Links checked 2 November 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is…
Stevens, David: In all respects ready: Australia’s navy in World War One
Stevens, David In All Respects Ready: Australia’s Navy in World War One, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 2014 When the newly built Australian fleet sailed into Sydney for the first time in October 1913, it was portrayed as a sign…
Centenary Watch: December 2014-January 2015
[Links checked 27 October 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where a link is…
Broinowski, Alison: Citizenfour reviewed
Broinowski, Alison ‘Surveillance is control: Citizenfour reviewed’, Honest History, 15 February 2015 Australia has form in surveillance. The Keepsakes exhibition at the National Library of Australia has the caption ‘A wartime police state’ on exhibits depicting the Hughes Government’s actions…
Honest History questions answered
Honest History is anticipating that 2015 will be a significant year, due to the ‘centenary of Anzac’; it is eager to take part in the continuing conversation that is Australian history. While Honest History promotes dialogue and discussion in all…
Centenary Watch: September-November 2014
[Links checked 27 October 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources where links are broken.…
Honest History dialogue: thoughts provoked by an epitaph
‘Honest History dialogue: thoughts provoked by an epitaph’, Honest History, 21 December 2014 Our monthly Honest History e-newsletters include Whizzbangs, miscellaneous thought-provoking paragraphs, sometimes with a connection to events of the day. A Whizzbang in our 2 December newsletter ran…
Bongiorno, Frank: Douglas Newton’s Hell-Bent launched
Frank Bongiorno ‘Hell-Bent: Australia’s Leap into the Great War, by Douglas Newton, Scribe, 2014: Canberra Launch, Australian National University, 28 November 2014’, Honest History, 7 December 2014 There is a powerful myth concerning the way Australia behaves in international affairs.…
E-newsletter no. 21, 2 December 2014
ISSN:2202-5561 © This is our final newsletter for 2014. We resume newsletters again early in February. We will still be updating the site regularly; subscribe to our RSS Feed to get advice of updates or simply browse the site, particularly under…
History is about maps
‘History is about maps’, Honest History, 2 December 2014 Steve Flora reviews Maps: their Untold Stories: Map Treasures from the National Archives, edited by Rose Mitchell and Andrew Janes, and notes some other recent cartographical arrivals It used to be…
Honest History and the deep North
Peter Sellick writes in Online Opinion mainly about Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North and what it says about how people behave during wars. Along the way, Sellick mentions Honest History’s role in presenting an alternative view…
Highlights reel: ACOSS Poverty Report 2014
‘Highlights reel: ACOSS Poverty Report 2014’, Honest History, 30 October 2014 We are told that one of the most notable aspects of recent Australian history has been unbroken economic prosperity. We are told about more than two decades of growth,…
Honest History list: about 98 resources on Gough Whitlam
Australia’s 21st prime minister, Edward Gough Whitlam, has died at the age of 98. This is a roundup of commentary. It may show something of how myths are created and nourished. Mark Latham wrote this in June 2014. There is…
Team Australia?
Those who have attacked the old Australian character and the very notion of a national character argue that a diverse nation has no need to discover or define or celebrate a distinctive character; it should be committed solely to the…
E-newsletter no. 19, 7 October 2014
ISSN:2202-5561 © New on our website honesthistory.net.au Defining moments and strands of our history: we compare notes with the National Museum of Australia Is Gallipoli at risk of disastrous bushfires? Peter Stanley reports; Guardian Australia Family focus allows better remembrance: Richard Reid writes…
Review note: a ‘non-khaki’ view of Australia
‘A “non-khaki view” of Australia: “defining moments” matched against Honest History themes’, Honest History, 7 October 2014 updated Background The National Museum of Australia has put together 100 ‘defining moments’ in Australian history. The aim is ‘to stimulate a public discussion…
That faraway experience: family history and the Western Front
Reid, Richard ‘That faraway experience: some thoughts on family history and the Western Front’, Honest History, 7 October 2014 I had an uncle, John Holmes Wherry, my mother’s eldest brother in a family of six, who fought on the Western…
Centenary Watch: July-August 2014
[Links checked 27 October 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH]…
Anzac’s unauthorised biography reviewed
‘The unauthorised biography of a legend’, Honest History, 15 September 2014 Frank Bongiorno reviews Carolyn Holbrook, Anzac, the Unauthorised Biography, NewSouth, Sydney, 2014. See also speeches by Stuart Macintyre and the author at the Melbourne launch of the book. _________________…
With respect to John Burton
Edwards, Clive T. ‘With respect to John Burton’, Honest History, 10 September 2014 Rob Foot’s article (‘The curious case of Dr John Burton’, Quadrant, November 2013) denigrates the character and contribution of John Burton by reference to incidents that were…
McQueen, Humphrey: Preface to The Black Resistance
McQueen, Humphrey ‘Part II: Preface to The Black Resistance (1977)’, Honest History, 2 September 2014 The publication of the lecture in Part I stimulated a group of students to widen and deepen the sketch in the lecture. This became Fergus…
Centenary Watch: May-June 2014
[Links checked 26 October 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH]…
Centenary Watch: April 2014
[Links checked 26 October 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH]…
Centenary Watch: March 2014
Update 19 March 2014: Minister on veterans’ mental health and centenary spend [Links checked 26 October 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may…
Centenary Watch: February 2014
[Links checked 26 October 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH]…
Centenary Watch: Background (updated to end January 2014)
[Links checked 26 October 2017 and some were found to be broken, due to removal of material from websites or simply the passage of time. Honest History may be able to help users track down resources. Please contact admin@honesthistory.net.au. HH]…
Jauncey considers Keating on Remembrance Day (19 November 2013)
Paul Keating’s Remembrance Day speech 2013 marked the twentieth anniversary of his Unknown Australian Soldier speech at the Australian War Memorial in 1993. The tomb and the surrounding area at the Memorial has now been refurbished to include explicit recognition…
About Getting on with the world
Click here for all items related to: Getting on with the world Here there are references which address Australia’s relations with the rest of the world. In some cases, this relationship is associated with other strands of our history, such…
About Aftermath
Click here for all items related to: Aftermath Under this heading there are references about the effects of war on the people who fought and their families and the efforts of their country (which had sent them to war) to…
About Home front
Click here for all items related to: Home front Here there are references which bring out clearly how there is more to war history than the deeds of men in khaki and that this is the case not just in…
About Anzac analysed
Click here for all items related to: Anzac analysed Why has Anzac become so important to Australians and what are the implications of this for our country in the 21st century? Contributions and references come from contemporary historians, journalists and…
Gillard, Julia: Lone Pine ceremony 2012
Gillard, Julia Lone Pine ceremony, Gallipoli, 25 April 2012 Our federal bond was young when the Anzacs came to this place. The laws and institutions of our nation were laid down in 1901. But here, in 1915, its spirit and…