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

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Book note: Ross McMullin’s book Life So Full of Promise: further biographies of Australia’s lost generation

Sometimes important books slip through the reviewing net, for various reasons. There has been more of this in Honest History’s case recently; after ten years, we are winding back a bit (see separate note). In the case of Ross McMullin’s

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Stephens, David: Making the best of the Ben Roberts-Smith fiasco

David Stephens* ‘Making the best of the Ben Roberts-Smith fiasco‘, Pearls and Irritations, 2 August 2023 updated There may be an upside to the Ben Roberts-Smith case. Not for the family of Ali Jan or the people of Afghanistan. Not

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From the Honest History vault: Afghanistan: The Australian Story 2017 (a documentary)

The War Memorial’s Afghanistan exhibition was opened in 2013 but is now closed during the Memorial’s $550m Big Build, part of the justification for which was to have more space available to show what Australians did in Afghanistan. The previous

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Stephens, David: Two uncles, two great-uncles, two wars: a family Anzac story

David Stephens* ‘Two uncles, two great-uncles, two wars: a family Anzac story’, Honest History, 25 April 2023 For most families who are directly affected by war, commemoration is not speeches by politicians, not parades and wreaths and children waving flags;

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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

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From the Honest History vault: The Holocaust exhibition at the Australian War Memorial

Yesterday was Holocaust Memorial Day. Not many Australians know that the Australian War Memorial has had since 2016 a permanent exhibition* commemorating the Holocaust, with particular emphasis on that horrific event’s Australian survivors. It was to the great credit of

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Cashen, Phil: ‘Service and sacrifice’ in the Great War: analysed (as it should be more often)

Phil Cashen ‘”Service and sacrifice” in the Great War: analysed (as it should be more often)’, Shire at War, 30 October 2022; 11 December 2022 Update 17 February 2023: Analysis of the wounded returned men from the Shire of Alberton

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Baker, Mark: Last posts

Mark Baker ‘Last posts’, Inside Story, 11 November 2022 This article is mostly about the difficulties the National Archives of Australia (NAA) has experienced in funding the digitisation of military service records from World War II. Baker notes the inevitable

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Beaumont, Joan: Australia’s Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War Survived the Worst Economic Crisis it has Ever Faced

Joan Beaumont Australia’s Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War Survived the Worst Economic Crisis it has Ever Faced, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2022; electronic version available How a nation still in grief from the Great War

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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

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From the Honest History vault: Mythbusting about the Australian involvement in Vietnam

Update 30 August 2023: Our Vietnam War, three-part ABC, Australian government series. Update 18 August 2023: 50th anniversary of departure of last Australian troops from Vietnam: joint media release from Minister and Prime Minister; Prime Minister’s speech. Update 15 August

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Interim Report of Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide: a vanity building project is taking money from where it is sorely needed

Update 26 September 2022: Extensive coverage of government response to the Interim Report included this from the Minister and the Acting Prime Minister. *** The Interim Report. Recommendations 2-5 are about funding and staffing of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

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Stephens, David: Lest We Forget#1: Five years since Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s perceptive remark

David Stephens* ‘Lest We Forget#1: Five years since Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s perceptive remark’, Honest History, 10 April 2022 updated Lest We Forget has come to mean ‘Remember’, or even ‘Remember, or else!’, in relation to the commemoration of men and women

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Stuart Macintyre on Post-War Reconstruction: From the Honest History vault

In 2015, the late Professor Stuart Macintyre published a great book on Post-War Reconstruction, describing the work of politicians and bureaucrats in Australia during and after the Second World War.  Australia’s Boldest Experiment: War and Reconstruction in the 1940s won

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Haultain-Gall, Matthew: The Battlefield of Imperishable Memory: Passchendaele and the Anzac Legend

Matthew Haultain-Gall The Battlefield of Imperishable Memory: Passchendaele and the Anzac Legend, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2021 Given the extent of their sacrifices, the Australians’ exploits in Belgium ought to be well known in a nation that has fervently commemorated

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Fathi, Romain: Why have Australians forgotten Belgium when we obsess about our Diggers’ deeds in France?

Romain Fathi* ‘Why have Australians forgotten Belgium when we obsess about our Diggers’ deeds in France?’ Honest History, 30 August 2021 Romain Fathi reviews Matthew Haultain-Gall’s The Battlefield of Imperishable Memory:  Passchendaele and the Anzac Legend The central question this

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Stephens, Alan: Another bright shining lie: the ADF and Afghanistan

Alan Stephens ‘Another bright shining lie: the ADF and Afghanistan‘, Pearls & Irritations, 19 August 2021 This essay is concerned with the military-strategic dimension of our latest national bright shining lie; namely, the marketing by the Australian Defence Force’s hierarchy

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Stephens, David: Reflections on Afghanistan: hell no, never, ever go? And the gunrunners win anyway

David Stephens* ‘Reflections on Afghanistan: hell no, never, ever go? And the gunrunners win anyway’, Honest History, 19 August 2021 updated Update 1 April 2022: Memorial response to Senate Estimates Question from Senator Steele-John (Question No. 179). Pdf. Carefully worded.

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Daley, Paul: Morrison says troops died “for a great cause” in Afghanistan. To quote a grieving father, that’s bullshit

Paul Daley ‘Morrison says troops died “for a great cause” in Afghanistan. To quote a grieving father, that’s bullshit‘, Guardian Australia, 16 August 2021 Scott Morrison is shamelessly audacious to claim Australian service personnel died for “a great cause” in this country’s

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From the Honest History vault: The Holocaust at the Australian War Memorial

In December 2016, Honest History published a review by Professor Peter Stanley of the then recently opened Holocaust exhibition at the Australian War Memorial. We added to it later with a 2019 speech from then Memorial Director, Brendan Nelson, to

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Stephens, David: ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds’: Hiroshima 75 years on

David Stephens* ‘”Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”: Hiroshima 75 years on’, Honest History, 6 August 2020 updated Update 8 August 2021, 76 years on: Sue Wareham of Medical Association for Prevention of War and International Campaign

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Pegram, Aaron: Surviving the Great War: Australian Prisoners of War on the Western Front 1916–18

Aaron Pegram Surviving the Great War: Australian Prisoners of War on the Western Front 1916–18, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge & Port Melbourne, 2020; electronic version available Between 1916 and 1918, more than 3,800 men of the Australian Imperial Force were

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Alexander, Kristen: They also served: Australians dealing with the challenge of captivity during the Great War

Kristen Alexander* ‘They also served: Australians dealing with the challenge of captivity during the Great War’, Honest History, 13 March 2020 Kristen Alexander reviews Surviving the Great War: Australian Prisoners of War on the Western Front, 1916-18, by Aaron Pegram

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Stephens, David: What did you do after the war? The Missing is brief but packs a punch

David Stephens* ‘What did you do after the war? The Missing is brief but packs a punch’, Honest History, 14 January 2020 Late last year (29 November), Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance saw the launch of The Missing, a brief (11

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Stanley, Peter: Uneasy peace

Peter Stanley ‘Uneasy peace‘, Inside Story, 15 December 2019 Review of a new collection of essays, The Great War: Aftermath and Commemoration, edited by Carolyn Holbrook and Keir Reeves, and published by UNSW Press. The book was launched last month.

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Stephens, David: From the Honest History vault: Awkward humility: the speeches of the Hon. Brendan Nelson AO

David Stephens* ‘From the Honest History vault: Awkward humility: the speeches of the Hon. Brendan Nelson AO‘, Honest History, 15 August 2019 A long piece in two parts on the oral oeuvre of the soon to be former Director of

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Llewellyn, Richard: The Australian War Memorial Redevelopment Program: the “Mitchell Option” reassessed

Richard Llewellyn ‘The Australian War Memorial Redevelopment Program: the “Mitchell Option” reassessed‘, Honest History, 22 July 2019 updated [For the context to this paper, go to the Heritage Guardians campaign diary, which includes an earlier paper by Richard Llewellyn.] Update

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Shield, John: The soldier settlers of Ubobo, south-west of Gladstone, have left only memories

John Shield* ‘The soldier settlers of Ubobo, south-west of Gladstone, have left only memories’, Honest History, 21 July 2019 On 13 August 1929 the Ubobo Branch of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA) held its annual

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Gower, Steve: The Australian War Memorial: A Century on from the Vision

Steve Gower The Australian War Memorial: A Century on from the Vision, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2019 In this book, Steve Gower, the highly successful director of the Australian War Memorial from 1996 to 2012, gives a comprehensive account of the

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Abbott, Derek: A personal memoir from a safe pair of hands: Steve Gower on the Australian War Memorial

Derek Abbott* ‘A personal memoir from a safe pair of hands: Steve Gower on the Australian War Memorial’, Honest History, 2 July 2019 Derek Abbott reviews The Australian War Memorial: A Century on from the Vision, by Steve Gower  Steve

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Stephens, David: Strengthening the RSL link is not the most pressing need for the War Memorial Council

David Stephens* ‘Strengthening the RSL link is not the most pressing need for the unrepresentative and anachronistic War Memorial Council’, Honest History, 30 June 2019 updated During the recent election campaign, New South Wales President of the RSL, James Brown,

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O’Mallon, Finbar: War memorial risks becoming a “theme park”: former director

Finbar O’Mallon ‘War memorial risks becoming a “theme park”: former director‘, Canberra Times, 24 June 2019 Interview with former Director Brendon Kelson, referring to his letter to the Prime Minister regarding the proposed Memorial extensions. Mr Kelson offers the Memorial’s

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Llewellyn, Richard: The Australian War Memorial extensions: a critique of the design choice

Richard Llewellyn ‘The Australian War Memorial extensions: a critique of the design choice‘, Honest History, 24 June 2019 Richard Llewellyn held the senior position of Registrar at the Australian War Memorial from 1986 to 1995. His paper (almost 8700 words)

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Bye, Clarissa: Military heroes in fight of their lives as more veterans die through suicide

Clarissa Bye ‘Military heroes in fight of their lives as more veterans die through suicide‘, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 2019 Continues a campaign by Daily Telegraph, including editorially, for a Royal Commission into suicide of Australian Defence Force veterans. Earlier

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Binh Ba anniversary a good time to look more widely at Vietnam War: from the Honest History vault

Updated 29 February 2020: a retrospective from historian Peter Edwards in The Strategist. Last week was the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Binh Ba, a small battle in the Vietnam War, in which one Australian was killed and ten

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Palmer, Charlotte: Is the Australian War Memorial a place of healing?

Charlotte Palmer ‘Is the Australian War Memorial a place of healing?‘ Pearls and Irritations, 23 May 2019 Article by retired Canberra GP medical practitioner, with 25 years’ clinical experience in treating psychological trauma. For those with untreated or unresolved distress,

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Janson, Julie: The Light Horse Ghost

Julie Janson The Light House Ghost, Nibago, Avalon, NSW, 2018; electronic version available From the World War 1 Middle Eastern Theatre of War, the Desert Campaign and the Light Horse military victory, to a quiet family life in a gold

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Broinowski, Alison: A novel about war on the home front and in the Middle East

Alison Broinowski* ‘A novel about war on the home front and in the Middle East’, Honest History, 12 May 2019 Alison Broinowski reviews Julie Janson’s The Light Horse Ghost Julie Janson knows about the other Australia. Descended from the Darug

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Dapin, Mark: Australia’s Vietnam: Myth vs History

Mark Dapin Australia’s Vietnam: Myth vs History, NewSouth, Sydney, 2019 This book should be read by anyone interested in the way myths become accepted as history.’ — Peter Edwards, author of Australia and the Vietnam War Why everything you think you

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Stephens, David: Mark Dapin: politely pushing back against Australia’s Vietnam mythology

David Stephens* ‘Mark Dapin: politely pushing back against Australia’s Vietnam mythology’, Honest History, 7 May 2019 updated David Stephens reviews Mark Dapin’s Australia’s Vietnam: Myth vs History  The Honest History enterprise has devoted a lot of time and effort to

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Cooper, Jan: Searching for my father: a war story

Jan Cooper* ‘Searching for my father: a war story’, Honest History, 8 April 2019 Recently I went in search of information about my father, Doug Cooper. Like others born in 1940 or thereabouts, I suspected that I was not alone

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Cashen, Phil: 192. Thanksgiving Sunday, 17/11/18

Phil Cashen ‘192. Thanksgiving Sunday, 17/11/18‘, Shire at War, 12 November 2018 Another excellent microcosmic piece – Phil Cashen has done 192 of them to date – from the Shire of Alberton, this time closely examining sermons in local churches

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Cashen, Phil: Spanish flu. Part 1

Phil Cashen ‘Spanish flu. Part 1‘, Shire at War, 29 October 2018 updated Update 25 April 2019: Glenn Davies in Independent Australia on Sister Rosa O’Kane, who nursed sufferers from the flu. Good general coverage on the epidemic. *** A

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Wakeling, Adam: Stern Justice: The Forgotten Story of Australia, Japan and the Pacific War Crimes Trials

Adam Wakeling Stern Justice: The Forgotten Story of Australia, Japan and the Pacific War Crimes Trials, Penguin Viking, Melbourne, 2018; e-book available While the Nuremberg trials at the end of the Second World War are infamous, as are the atrocities

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Burton, Pamela: Stern justice not without controversy: Japanese war crimes trials after World War II

Pamela Burton* ‘Stern justice not without controversy: Japanese war crimes trials after World War II’, Honest History, 12 October 2018 Pamela Burton reviews Stern Justice: The Forgotten Story of Australia, Japan and the Pacific War Crimes Trials, by Adam Wakeling

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Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (37): Returning home to South Gippsland in 1918

‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (37): Returning home to South Gippsland in 1918’, Honest History, 27 September 2018 This is the last post in our ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series. We hope the series has given a useful perspective on the

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Alfano, Mark: They shall not die in vain: how the Islamic State honours its fallen soldiers – and how Australians do the same

Mark Alfano ‘They shall not die in vain: how the Islamic State honours its fallen soldiers – and how Australians do the same‘, The Conversation, 20 August 2018 Perceptive piece from a philosopher; based on frequency analysis of Islamic State

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Read, John L.: Dear Grandpa, Why? Reflections from Kokoda to Hiroshima

John L. Read Dear Grandpa, Why? Reflections from Kokoda to Hiroshima, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2018 Edward Tompson Mobsby, father of twin baby girls, volunteered for war service and was shot down by the Japanese in New Guinea in 1942. John

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Abbott, Derek: Coming to grips with Grandpa, Japan and wars

Derek Abbott[*] ‘Coming to grips with Grandpa, Japan and wars’, Honest History, 18 August 2018 Derek Abbott reviews Dear Grandpa, Why? Reflections from Kokoda to Hiroshima by John L. Read Edward Mobsby, ‘Mobs’ to his mates, enlisted in the RAAF

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Hastings, David: Odyssey of the Unknown Anzac

David Hastings Odyssey of the Unknown Anzac, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2018; New Zealand edition published by Auckland University Press In 1928 the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia produced 10,000 copies of a poster asking for help

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Spark, Seumas: A victim of the war

Seumas Spark* ‘A victim of the war’, Honest History, 12 June 2018 Seumas Spark reviews David Hastings, Odyssey of the Unknown Anzac Three things stand out about David Hastings’ book Odyssey of the Unknown Anzac. First, it is about a

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Brooker, Ben: 100 years of Anzac: ludicrous spending for nationalist validation

Ben Brooker ‘100 years of Anzac: ludicrous spending for nationalist validation‘, Overland, 24 April 2018 updated Sets the Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux against the broader context of commemorative spending, quoting Honest History estimates. Sharp points on opportunity cost and musing

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Hamilton, Andrew: Remembering shared humanity on Anzac Day

Andrew Hamilton ‘Remembering shared humanity on Anzac Day’, Eureka Street, 22 April 2018 [Politicians have] spent heavily on facilities for remembering the war, focused on the site of the battle rather than on the hometowns of those who grieve, and

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May, Catriona: War and trauma: learning the lessons

Catriona May ‘War and trauma: learning the lessons‘, Pursuit (University of Melbourne), 19 April 2018 An apposite post for the Anzac season, the article examines developments in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in armed forces, from diagnosis of ‘shell-shock’

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Stanley, Peter: Not Gallipoli: a visit to Dybbøl, a Danish site of memory

Peter Stanley* ‘Not Gallipoli: a visit to Dybbøl, a Danish site of memory’, Honest History, 10 April 2018 What does a visit to Dybbøl tell Australians? It offers a reminder that battlefield commemoration need not be strident, garish or sentimental,

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Twomey, Christina: The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia

Christina Twomey The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia, NewSouth, Sydney, 2018 This landmark and compelling book follows the stories of 15,000 Australian prisoners of war from the moment they were released by the Japanese at the end of World

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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

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Hyland, Tom: What have I become?

Tom Hyland ‘“What have I become?”‘ Inside Story, 14 December 2017 A review of – and a look at the politics behind – Chris Masters’ just published book No Front Line: Australian Special Forces at War in Afghanistan. Hyland notes

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Jenkins, Simon: No more remembrance days – let’s consign the 20th century to history

Simon Jenkins ‘No more remembrance days – let’s consign the 20th century to history‘, The Guardian, 9 November 2017 Other Honest History material on Remembrance Day 99 is here and linked therefrom. Simon Jenkins’ piece was shared 12 000 times

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Four late offerings for Remembrance Day: what should we remember really?

We have already posted some material relevant to 11 November, Remembrance Day, the 99th of that designation. That little collection links to the other posts. There’s also Simon Jenkins from The Guardian, who says ‘enough already’ of Remembrance Day. Two

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McMullin, Ross: Pompey Elliott at War: In His Own Words

Ross McMullin Pompey Elliott at War: In His Own Words, Scribe, Melbourne, 2017; e-book available The wartime letters and diaries of Pompey Elliott, Australia’s most famous fighting general, are exceptionally forthright. They are also remarkably illuminating about his volatile emotions

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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

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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

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Makepeace, Clare: Captives of War: British Prisoners of War in Europe in the Second World War

Clare Makepeace Captives of War: British Prisoners of War in Europe in the Second World War, Cambridge University Press, 2017 This book is of Australian interest, as some 8000 Australians were POWs in Europe during World War II, although they

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Stephens, David: What wars do to soldiers: Greg Lockhart’s The Minefield

David Stephens ‘What wars do to soldiers: Greg Lockhart’s The Minefield‘, Honest History, 2 October 2017 updated All wars are different yet all wars are the same. No matter which politicians garner credit or blame, regardless of which officers get

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Haultain-Gall, Matthew: Forgetting and remembering the Anzacs in Flanders Fields

Matthew Haultain-Gall ‘Forgetting and remembering the Anzacs in Flanders Fields‘, Overland, 26 September 2017 Discusses why the battles of Ypres (including Passchendaele) have not had a higher profile in Australian collective memory. The third battle of Ypres did not fit

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Daley, Paul: The Anzac skull that tells a shocking and tragic story of battlefield violence

Paul Daley ‘The Anzac skull that tells a shocking and tragic story of battlefield violence‘, Guardian Australia, 25 September 2017 updated Story of an Anzac soldier’s skull exhibited in an American medical museum’s online exhibition. The soldier was shot near

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Stanley, Peter: The Crying Years: Australia’s Great War

Peter Stanley The Crying Years: Australia’s Great War, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2017 Peter Stanley cleverly weaves his narrative around striking images [from the National Library’s collection]—many never seen before—to create a visual history that immerses the reader in

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Haultain-Gall, Matthew: Same old relics, same old story? Displaying the third battle of Ypres at the Australian War Memorial, past and present

Matthew Haultain-Gall ‘Same old relics, same old story? Displaying the third battle of Ypres at the Australian War Memorial, past and present‘, History Australia, vol. 14, no. 3, August 2017, pp. 1-17 (link to online version supplied by author) When

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Straw, Leigh: After the War: Returned Soldiers and the Mental and Physical Scars of World War I

Leigh Straw After the War: Returned Soldiers and the Mental and Physical Scars of World War I, University of Western Australia Press, Perth, 2017 Of the 330,000 Australian men who enlisted and served in World War I, close to 60,000

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After the war way out in the West (review of Leigh Straw)

‘After the war way out in the West’ (review of Leigh Straw), Honest History, 8 September 2017 John Shield* reviews Leigh Straw’s After the War: Returned Soldiers and the Mental and Physical Scars of World War I  After reading Leigh

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Better late than never: Minister says best form of commemoration is to look after today’s veterans and families

Update later 15 August 2017: Minister welcomes report of the Senate References Committee into suicide by veterans and ex-service personnel. (The report is here.) SBS Insight program ‘Coming Home’ on issues faced by ADF personnel coming back into the civilian

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The Vimy Trap rings Anzackery bells (review of McKay & Swift)

‘The Vimy Trap rings Anzackery bells’, Honest History, 25 July 2017 David Stephens* reviews The Vimy Trap Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War, by Ian McKay and Jamie Swift   The Battle of Vimy

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McKay, Ian & Jamie Swift: The Vimy Trap Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War

Ian McKay & Jamie Swift The Vimy Trap Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War, Between the Lines Books, Toronto, 2016; e-book available The story of the bloody 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge is, according

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Honest History: Second edition of Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial

Honest History ‘Second edition of Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial‘, Honest History, 13 June 2017 updated Update 1 October 2017: the For Country, For Nation exhibition (discussed in the Alternative Guide) closed in Canberra in September

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Blight, David: The Battle for Memorial Day in New Orleans

David Blight ‘The Battle for Memorial Day in New Orleans‘, The Atlantic, 29 May 2017 Examines the recent Memorial Day oration of Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans, at a time when the former Confederate states of America are again

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Yu, Ouyang: Billy Sing

Ouyang Yu Billy Sing, Transit Lounge, Melbourne, 2017 William “Billy” Sing was born in 1886 to an English mother and Chinese father. He and his two sisters were brought up in Clermont and Proserpine, in rural Queensland. He was one of

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A gun that shoots right through history (review of Ouyang Yu on Billy Sing)

‘A gun that shoots right through history’, Honest History, 27 May 2017 Christina Spittel[*] reviews Ouyang Yu’s novel, Billy Sing Is there anything new to be said about Chinese-Australian sniper Billy Sing, who killed so many Turks at Gallipoli that

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ABC Q&A comments by Minister Tehan and others show how far past Peak Anzac we have come

The ABC’s Q&A program last night (video; transcript; Twitter; ABC story) tackled a number of questions with compere Virginia Trioli and panellists including Dan Tehan, Minister for a number of things including the Centenary of Anzac and Veterans’ Affairs. Honest

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Hassan, Toni: Why does the War Memorial proudly display this booty from an illegal war?

Toni Hassan ‘Why does the War Memorial proudly display this booty from an illegal war?‘, Canberra Times, 3 May 2017 Also in other Fairfax and in Canberra Times hard copy. Reports the disappointment of former Australian War Memorial education officer,

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Stephens, David: Anzac and Anzackery: have Australians normalised war?

David Stephens ‘Anzac and Anzackery: have Australians normalised war?’ Daily Review, 30 April 2017 Might we wade through the emotional sludge of Anzackery – the over-the-top, jingoistic bastardisation of the Anzac legend – to address some important questions about ‘our

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Word War One: how the law shaped the Anzac legend (review of Bond)

‘Word War One: how the law shaped the Anzac legend’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Jo Hawkins reviews Catherine Bond’s Anzac: The Landing, The Legend, The Law In the weeks leading up to the 2015 centenary of the Gallipoli landing,

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Stephens, David: ‘Afghanistan: The Australian Story shows war is about much more than “love and friendship”

David Stephens ‘Afghanistan: The Australian Story shows war is about much more than “love and friendship”’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 A review of Chris Masters’ double DVD for the Australian War Memorial. (Trailer; ABC story.) The DVDs contain footage

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Afghanistan: The Australian Story shows war is about much more than “love and friendship”

David Stephens ‘Afghanistan: The Australian Story shows war is about much more than “love and friendship”’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Serendipity can be illuminating. This reviewer began to watch Chris Masters’ double DVD, Afghanistan: The Australian Story, on the

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The full set: seven pieces of non-mainstream, non-marked up, non-profit commentary for Anzac Day

Related material: later; later still. *** Updated with a few more on Anzac Day itself This Anzac season, as in a number of previous years, Australian children – and possibly some adults, too – can pick up some Anzac mementoes

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Stephens, David: ‘”Johnnies and Mehmets”: Kemal Ataturk’s “quote” is an Anzac confidence trick

David Stephens ‘“Johnnies and Mehmets”: Kemal Ataturk’s “quote” is an Anzac confidence trick‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 April 2017 updated Edited version of David Stephens and Burcin Cakir’s chapter 7 of The Honest History Book. The words attributed to Ataturk,

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Long white clouds of Atatürk myth over Aotearoa New Zealand

Long white clouds of Atatürk myth over Aotearoa New Zealand The other day at the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington, New Zealand Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Maggie Barry, and Turkish Ambassador, Ahmet Ergin, unveiled a sculpture

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Phillips, Walter: My late pilgrimage to Gallipoli

Walter Phillips ‘My late pilgrimage to Gallipoli‘, Honest History, 21 March 2017 Honest History is pleased to publish this piece from Walter Phillips, Emeritus Scholar at La Trobe University, Melbourne. It is comparable with the elegaic Anzac commemoration pieces from

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My late pilgrimage to Gallipoli

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Bown, Sharon: One Woman’s War and Peace

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A personal view of war and peace (review of Sharon Bown)

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Stanley, Peter: Review of The Holocaust: Witnesses and Survivors at the Australian War Memorial

Peter Stanley* ‘Review of The Holocaust: Witnesses and Survivors at the Australian War Memorial’, Honest History, 13 December 2016 updated Update 26 February 2020: expanded exhibition opened by the Treasurer. Update 29 April 2019: speech by War Memorial Director Nelson

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Scates, Bruce & Melanie Oppenheimer: The Last Battle: Soldier Settlement in Australia, 1916-1939

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Settling for less (review of Scates and Oppenheimer)

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Minister releases preliminary results of study into veterans’ suicide; but are priorities still skewed?

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Braithwaite, Richard Wallace: Fighting Monsters: An Intimate History of the Sandakan Tragedy

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At war with the Braithwaites (review of Braithwaite, Fighting Monsters)

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Reid, Richard: ‘That famous army of generous men’: some stories and reflections for Remembrance Day

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Two years of commentary on the Australian War Memorial: from the Honest History archives

Rationale Critiquing the Anzac-centred received view of Australian history necessarily involves forensic examination of the work of our premier commemorative institution, the Australian War Memorial. The Memorial – rather surprisingly, in view of its interest in warlike matters – has

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‘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

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Stephens, David: ‘Awkward humility’: The speeches of the Hon. Dr Brendan Nelson AO: Part II: Long bows, Holly Golightly and political baseball bats

Stephens, David ‘“Awkward humility”: The speeches of the Hon. Dr Brendan Nelson AO: Part II: Long bows, Holly Golightly and political baseball bats‘, Honest History, 20 October 2016 This article continues our analysis of ten of Dr Nelson’s speeches from

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‘Awkward humility’: The speeches of the Hon. Dr Brendan Nelson AO: Part II: Long bows, Holly Golightly and political baseball bats

David Stephens ‘“Awkward humility”: The speeches of the Hon. Dr Brendan Nelson AO: Part II: Long bows, Holly Golightly and political baseball bats’, Honest History, 20 October 2016 updated In our previous article we looked at the structure, themes and

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‘Awkward humility’: The speeches of the Hon Brendan Nelson AO: Part I: Thrice more with feeling

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Stephens, David: ‘Awkward humility’: The speeches of the Hon Brendan Nelson, AO: Part I: Thrice more with feeling

Stephens, David ‘” Awkward humility”: The speeches of the Hon Brendan Nelson AO: Part I: Thrice more with feeling‘, Honest History, 11 October 2016 The article analyses ten speeches from 2007 to 2016 regarding their structure, recurring themes and sets

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Turnbull, Noel: Leadership in the face of Anzackery

Turnbull, Noel ‘Leadership in the face of Anzackery’, Noel Turnbull (blog) 29 August 2016 Another to add to our series ‘Australia’s Vietnam War – and keeping it in context‘. The author has been a journalist, academic, public relations consultant, and

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Bach, Willy: A “kick in the guts”? A final look at Long Tan

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Viet Thanh Nguyen : Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War

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Stephens, David: We need to talk about how we commemorate our wars in other people’s countries – and our own

Australia’s Vietnam War – and keeping it in context: others in the series _______________________________ David Stephens ‘We need to talk about how we commemorate our wars in other people’s countries – and our own’, Honest History, 18 August 2016 updated

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Broinowski, Richard: The Battle of Long Tan turns fifty – but not without a hitch

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From the Honest History archives: What happened to Australians after the Vietnam War (June 2015)?

Australia’s Vietnam War – and keeping it in context: others in the series _____________________________ Parades, recognition and misremembering Part of the narrative of Australia’s Vietnam War in the more than 40 years since our commitment ended has been that Australian

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From the Honest History archives: Agent Orange – Vietnam scourge of soldiers and civilians alike (March 2015, March 2016)

Australia’s Vietnam War – and keeping it in context: others in the series   Honest History has published a number of posts on the effects of Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant used by United States forces during the Vietnam War.

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Australia’s Vietnam War – and keeping it in context: Honest History series

‘Australia’s Vietnam War – and keeping it in context: an Honest History series’, Honest History, 15 August 2016 updated UPDATE 11.45 am FRIDAY: Still difficulties with access. UPDATE 6.00 AM THURSDAY: Restricted access to be allowed. STOP PRESS: Cancellation of

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Lamperd, Ruth: Families speak about military loved ones lost and how we failed them

Lamperd, Ruth ‘Families speak about military loved ones lost and how we failed them‘, Sunday Herald-Sun, 13 August 2016 The story reveals 41 military personnel and veterans died this year from suicide, the same as the number of Australians who

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From the Honest History archives: Hiroshima 1945; Managing Hiroshima

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From the Honest History archives: Wounded and damaged soldiers then and now (November 2014)

Between the centenary of Fromelles and Pozières it seems appropriate to re-run a small collection Honest History put together late in 2014 on the physical effects of war on the men and women who fight it. The collection was provoked

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RSL members miffed as PM mentions Soldier On

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Stephens, David: Keepers of the flame: making war memorial councils more representative

David Stephens ‘Keepers of the flame: why do the people who control our war memorials look so different from the rest of us and why does this matter?’ Honest History, 7 June 2016 This article analyses the composition of the

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Dow, Aisha: Thousands face mental scars from modern war service

Dow, Aisha ‘Thousands face mental scars from modern war service‘, The Age, 5 June 2016 Like the generations before them, many of today’s returned soldiers are facing enormous challenges adapting back to everyday life. Forty-one Australians serving in the Australian

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Keepers of the flame: making war memorial councils more representative

David Stephens ‘Keepers of the flame: why do the people who control our war memorials look so different from the rest of us and why does this matter?’ Honest History, 7 June 2016 updated Contents The Australian War Memorial Act

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Hill, Anthony: For Love of Country

Hill, Anthony For Love of Country, Penguin Viking, Melbourne, 2016 At the close of the First World War, and after surviving a gas attack on the Western Front, Captain Walter Eddison moved his family from war-ravaged Britain to start a

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For love of country in war and peace (review of Anthony Hill)

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Honest History sends copy of Alternative Guide to Australian War Memorial to every member of Memorial Council

Which word should we use to describe what happened on 25 April 1915: ‘landing’ or ‘invasion’? Why do we refer to dead soldiers as ‘the fallen’? Does the ‘freedom’ we are said to have fought for in our many wars

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ABC Radio National Big Ideas: Shell shock: a century of silence

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Honest History: Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial

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Irving, Nick: Glorifying the Anzac myth and our attitudes to violent men

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Bird, Jacqueline: In the matter of Agent Orange: Vietnam veterans versus the Australian War Memorial

Bird, Jacqueline* ‘In the matter of Agent Orange: Vietnam veterans versus the Australian War Memorial‘, Honest History, 15 March 2016 A detailed account of more than twenty years of history, leading up to the agreement by the Australian War Memorial

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In the matter of Agent Orange: Vietnam veterans versus the Australian War Memorial

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PM’s remembrance rhetoric and alleged DVA performance: a fascinating juxtaposition

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Fathi, Romain: ‘A piece of Australia in France’: Anzac Day at Villers-Bretonneux

Fathi, Romain ‘”A piece of Australia in France”: Australian authorities and the commemoration of Anzac Day at Villers-Bretonneux in the last decade’, Shanti Sumartojo & Ben Wellings, ed. Nation, Memory and Great War Communication, Peter Lang, Bern & Oxford, 2014,

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Review note: Stephens and Seal’s Remembering the Wars

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Powell, Graeme with Stuart Macintyre: Land of opportunity (Post-War Reconstruction archives)

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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

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What is history? (review of Scates et al)

‘What is history? An old question; a new answer?’ Honest History, 1 December 2015 Jim Windeyer* reviews World War One: A History in 100 Stories by Bruce Scates, Rebecca Wheatley and Laura James. Another review by David Stephens. Jim Windeyer

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Subversive stories of an old war (review of Scates et al)

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Daley, Paul: Vietnam veteran who never really returned

Daley, Paul ‘“He should have died”: the Vietnam veteran who never really returned‘, Guardian Australia, 25 November 2015 Partly a review of historian Michael McKernan’s memoir (When this Thing Happened) about his brother-in-law, Joe Stawyskyj, a national servicemen, injured for

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Beaumont, Joan, Lachlan Grant & Aaron Pegram; ed.: Beyond surrender: POWs

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Fitting POWs into our skewed Anzac legend (review of Beyond Surrender)

‘Fitting POWs into our skewed Anzac legend’ (review of Beyond Surrender), Honest History, 25 November 2015 Kristen Alexander* reviews Beyond Surrender: Australian Prisoners of War in the Twentieth Century, edited by Joan Beaumont, Lachlan Grant and Aaron Pegram _____________________ As

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Spittel, Christina: Australia in the Great War (review of AWM WWI galleries)

Spittel, Christina* ‘Australia in the Great War‘, reCollections, vol. 10, no. 2, October 2015 This review of the refurbished World War I galleries at the Australian War Memorial was published in the online journal of the National Museum of Australia.

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Hassan, Toni: what’s the War Memorial good for?

Hassan, Toni ‘The War Memorial: what’s it good for?‘ Age, 6 November 2015 Also in other Fairfax papers, this piece takes up themes common in Honest History: the Australian War Memorial shies away from recognising the Frontier Wars, it plays

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Banivanua Mar, Tracey: Pacific people and war in Pacific

Banivanua Mar, Tracey ‘Remember the Pacific’s people when we remember the war in the Pacific‘, The Conversation, 19 August 2015 Summarises the story of war in the Pacific from the point-of-view of the people who lived there and had to

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Review note: Stuart Macintyre’s Australia’s Boldest Experiment

‘Review note: Stuart Macintyre’s Australia’s Boldest Experiment‘, Honest History, 19 August 2015 updated World War I is far enough back for spruikers of a particular view of it to extract bits selectively from, say, the ambivalent Charles Bean and impress

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VP Day 70th anniversary: miscellany

‘VP Day 70th anniversary: Honest History miscellany’, Honest History, 16 August 2015 Anniversary Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Japan in 1945, commemorated as Victory in the Pacific Day. ABC News provided a comprehensive round-up. Geraldine Doogue

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Cashen, Phil: a soldier ‘missing’ at Lone Pine

Cashen, Phil ‘John Henry Adams‘, Shire at War, 11 August 2015 To further mark the centenary of Lone Pine, another cameo from the Shire at War blog from the Yarram area, Gippsland, Victoria. Adams is interesting because of his divided

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Great War chaplains after the tumult and shouting

‘Great War chaplains after the tumult and shouting’, Honest History, 4 August 2015 John A. Moses* reviews Linda Parker’s Shellshocked Prophets: Former Anglican Army Chaplains in Inter-War Britain _______________________________________ At a time when all denominations are being pilloried for the

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Parker, Linda: shellshocked prophets

Parker, Linda Shellshocked Prophets: Former Anglican Army Chaplains in Inter-War Britain, Helion (Wolverhampton Military Studies), Solihull, UK, 2015 The Anglican chaplains who served in the Great War were changed by their experience of total war. They returned determined to revitalize

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Broinowski, Alison: Toxic warfare (Agent Orange)

Broinowski, Alison ‘Toxic warfare: Agent Orange revisited‘, Honest History, 16 July 2015 The article comments on the decision by the Australian War Memorial Council to commission a further volume on the medical aspects of the Vietnam War. Also relevant are

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Toxic warfare: revisiting Agent Orange

Alison Broinowski ‘Toxic warfare: revisiting Agent Orange’, Honest History, 16 July 2015 Soon after the Australian War Memorial announced that three new histories of the wars in East Timor, Afghanistan, and Iraq (to 2014) are to be written in the

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Review note: Australia and the First World War (Australian Historical Studies)

‘Review note: AHS Classics virtual issue “Australia and the First World War” (Australian Historical Studies)’, Honest History, 12 July 2015 This virtual issue ‘reprints’ seven articles with an introductory essay from Bart Ziino. They are all free access until end

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Broinowski, Alison: Officially acceptable war history

Broinowski, Alison ‘Officially acceptable war history‘, Honest History, 11 July 2015 The article discusses the projected official histories of the Australian involvements in East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq. Dr Broinowski is Vice President of Honest History and of Australians for

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Officially acceptable war history

Alison Broinowski ‘Officially acceptable war history’, Honest History, 11 July 2015 The government is soon to announce who will write the official history of Australia’s three latest military interventions in East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs,

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Rasmussen, Sune Engel: Afghanistan legacy

Rasmussen, Sune Engel ‘All that remains: our questionable legacy in Afghanistan‘, Sydney Morning Herald ‘Good Weekend’, 4 July 2015 Article by a Kabul-based Danish journalist, which notes the growing strength of the Taliban since Australia left Oruzgan province. On the

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Tooze, Adam: Deluge, Great War and remaking global order

Tooze, Adam The Deluge: the Great War and the Remaking of Global Order 1916-1931, Allen Lane, London, 2014; electronic version available; US edition has different title Adam Tooze’s panoramic new book tells a radical, new story of the struggle for

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Deluge: Great War and remaking global order

‘Deluge: Great War and remaking global order’, Honest History, 7 July 2015 Adam Tooze’s book is reviewed by Derek Abbott* ________________ The causes of World War I are the source of seemingly endless debate. From Prussian military hubris or German

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Buckley, Ian: Lessons of the Boer War

Ian Buckley ‘A case history: Britain, Empire decline, and the origins of WW1, or, might the lessons of the Boer War have saved the day?‘ Honest History, 7 July 2015 Boer women and children in a British concentration camp during

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Review note: WWI in Australia (Journal of Australian Studies)

‘Review note: World War I in Australia (Journal of Australian Studies, virtual special issue, April 2015)’, Honest History, 7 July 2015 We recently noted difficulties of access with some online journals. This issue of the Journal of Australian Studies, published

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Sheralyn Rose responds to Honest History

‘Sheralyn Rose responds to Honest History highlights reel’, Honest History, 18 June 2015 Dr Sheralyn Rose, the wife of a Vietnam veteran, has responded to our highlights reel on Vietnam mythbusting. Rather than ask her to provide this material as

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Vietnam Veterans’ Federation responds to Honest History

‘Vietnam Veterans’ Federation responds to Honest History highlights reel’, Honest History, 12 June 2015 The Vietnam Veterans’ Federation through its national research officer, Graham Walker, has responded to our highlights reel on Vietnam mythbusting. Rather than ask Graham Walker to

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Dapin, Mark: The Nashos’ War

Dapin, Mark The Nashos’ War: Australia’s National Servicemen and Vietnam, Penguin Viking, Melbourne, 2014 [O]ur ideas of national service contain strange contradictions and inaccuracies: that the draft was unpopular but militarily necessary; that the nashos in Vietnam all volunteered to

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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

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Mythbusting about Vietnam: highlights reel

‘Mythbusting about Australians returned from Vietnam: Honest History highlights reel’, Honest History, 9 June 2015 updated UPDATE 14 July 2015: further volume planned on medical aspects of Vietnam War service. Comment by Alison Broinowski. UPDATE 18 June 2015: Dr Sheralyn

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Edwards, Peter: Australia and the Vietnam War

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Stephens, David: Anzac and Anzackery (Kogarah speech)

Stephens, David ‘Anzac and Anzackery: speech to Kogarah Historical Society, 14 May 2015‘, Honest History, 9 June 2015 Honest History’s secretary speaks on the contrast between an Anzac ideal and the bloated caricature that is ‘Anzackery’. There are many resources

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Manne, Robert, Robin Prior & Carolyn Holbrook: What really happened at Gallipoli?

Manne, Robert, Robin Prior & Carolyn Holbrook ‘What really happened at Gallipoli?’ La Trobe University Ideas and Society, Melbourne, 23 April 2015 A conversation before an audience regarding, first, events at Gallipoli up until December 1915 (Manne and Prior) then,

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McQueen, Humphrey: Spanish flu pandemic Australia 1912-19

McQueen, Humphrey ‘The “Spanish” influenza pandemic in Australia, 1912-19’, Jill Roe, ed., Social Policy in Australia: some Perspectives 1901-1975, Cassell Australia, Stanmore NSW, 1976, pp. 131-147 (pdf of out-of-copyright material made available by the author) This article was originally delivered

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Kent, James (dir.): Testament of Youth

Kent, James (dir.) Testament of Youth, BBC Films and other production companies, UK, 2014 Movie adaptation of Vera Brittain’s memoir, Testament of Youth, first published in 1933. The movie is scripted by Juliette Twohidi and stars Alicia Vykander, Kit Harington,

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This Testament not silly at all

‘This Testament not silly at all’, Honest History, 3 May 2015 David Stephens reviews Testament of Youth, the movie adaptation of Vera Brittain‘s memoir Peter Stanley’s review of the Russell Crowe Great War movie, The Water Diviner, has been viewed

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Inglis, Ken: Gallipoli 1965

Inglis, Ken ‘Letters from a pilgrimage‘, Inside Story, 23 April 2015 Ken Inglis introduces reprints of his seven articles for the Canberra Times reporting the Gallipoli visit of 1965 by veterans and descendants. Two are printed here and the others

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Medical Association for Prevention of War: Statement in commemoration of WWI

Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) ‘Statement in commemoration of World War I‘, MAPW, 27 April 2015 The Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) commemorates World War 1, including the Gallipoli landings of 25 April 1915, with a

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Scates, Bruce & Rebecca Wheatley: search for The Water Diviner

Scates, Bruce & Rebecca Wheatley ‘The search for “The Water Diviner”‘, Monash University, 23 April 2015 Short documentary tracing the story of Thomas Murray of Gippsland, Victoria, who travelled to Gallipoli after the Great War in search of his son,

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Schultz, Julianne, Peter Cochrane, et al.: Enduring legacies

Schultz, Julianne, Peter Cochrane, et al. ‘Enduring legacies‘, Griffith Review, 48, 2015; available online to subscribers Update 7 May 2015: Honest History attended a discussion at the National Library with about 150 others. Julianne Schultz, editor of this volume, wrangled

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Investing our legacies

‘Investing our legacies’, Honest History, 16 April 2015 David Stephens reviews Griffith Review 48, ‘Enduring legacies’, edited by Julianne Schultz and Peter Cochrane The title of this excellent collection is, at one level, obvious but, at another, full of possibilities.

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Mutton, Katy: Post War project

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Wise, Nathan: Anzac Labour

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Anzac Labour reviewed

‘Anzac Labour reviewed’, Honest History, 14 April 2014 Paddy Gourley reviews Nathan Wise’s book Anzac Labour: Workplace Cultures in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War If most books about the military in war concentrate on the description

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National Portrait Gallery: All That Fall exhibition

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Small but powerful: two Canberra Great War exhibitions

‘Small but powerful: two Canberra Great War exhibitions’, Honest History, 13 April 2015 David Stephens reviews All That Fall at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, and When Hall Answered the Call at the Hall School Museum, Hall, A.C.T. You only

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Grey, Jeffrey, ed.: Great War centenary history

Grey, Jeffrey, ed. The Centenary History of Australia and the Great War, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 2014-16 Five volume set, including Australia and the War in the Air (Volume 1) by Michael Molkentin, reviewed by Kristen Alexander, The War

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Death cults were around in 1914

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ABC Four Corners: Bringing the war home

ABC TV ‘Bringing the war home‘, Four Corners, 9 March 2015 Article by Quentin McDermott and Mary Fallon, transcript and video of story about after-effects of war service in Iraq and Afghanistan. ‘As Australia prepares to send more troops to

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Bach, Willy: Agent Orange in Vietnam

Bach, Willy Britain, Australia, the United States and Agent Orange in the Indochina Wars: Re-defining Chemical-Biological Warfare: research paper (6 March 2015) This article re-examines the sanitised history of Agent Orange and other defoliants used in the Indochina War between

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What Kemal (probably, possibly) did: Ataturk’s letter

The Gallipoli 1915: a century on conference last week heard mentions of the famous ‘Atatürk letter’. We have a number of relevant references on the Honest History website, some of them incorporating research that others may not have done. These

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Brasch, Sarah: Our national cathedral? Last Post at the Memorial

Sarah Brasch ‘Our national cathedral?‘ Honest History, 15 March 2015 Describes the Last Post ceremony held almost every evening at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. The author finds the ceremony ‘has a liturgy all of its own and a

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Our national cathedral?

‘Our national cathedral?’ Honest History, 15 March 2015 Sarah Brasch* attends the Last Post ceremony at the Australian War Memorial Unlike Washington DC, Canberra does not have a National Cathedral. But since 17 April 2013 our capital has had something

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Featherstone, Don (dir.): The War that Changed Us

Featherstone, Don (dir.) The War that Changed Us, Electric Pictures, 2014 Documentary (four parts) about Australia during World War I, produced by Andrew Ogilvie and scripted by Clare Wright and the director. It follows the stories of six people, who

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McKernan, Michael: WWI: Love & Sorrow

McKernan, Michael ‘WWI: Love & sorrow‘, reCollections (National Museum of Australia), 10, 1, 2015 Review of this exhibition, which is at the Melbourne Museum until November 2018. This is an exhibition [says McKernan] that openly and deliberately works on the

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Stephens, David: Another look at the Australian War Memorial’s WWI galleries

David Stephens ‘Is this “our story”? Another look at the Australian War Memorial’s refurbished World War I galleries’, Honest History, 3 March 2015 Update 20 November 2015: a review from Christina Spittel of UNSW Canberra in the National Museum’s reCollections

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Is this ‘our story’? AWM’s refurbished WWI galleries

‘Is this “our story”? Another look at the Australian War Memorial’s refurbished World War I galleries’, Honest History, 3 March 2015 David Stephens takes a further look at the new galleries. There are launches and launches. The Australian War Memorial

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ABC The World Today: Veterans sleeping rough

ABC ‘One in 10 people sleeping rough in Melbourne are war veterans‘, The World Today, 6 January 2015 Interview (transcript, audio) with spokespersons for Homeground, a support organisation, and the RSL. Most of the veterans sleeping rough served in Iraq

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Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee: contested Vietnam history

Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee ‘Whose history of the Vietnam War will prevail?‘ History News Network, 4 January 2015 Reports activities of former Vietnam War peace activists in the United States to contest the official view of the war being promoted

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Stephens, David: Two views of World War I: War Memorial and National Library

David Stephens ‘Two views of World War I: sight-bites and Keepsakes‘, Honest History, 3 February 2015 The article is a review of the refurbished World War I galleries of the Australian War Memorial and the temporary Keepsakes exhibition at the

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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

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Standing stones

The grave marker of Private WL Rae (killed 8 August 1918, aged 24) in the Villers Bretonneux cemetery reads, ‘Another life lost, hearts broken, for what’. This sentiment on Great War graves is unusually frank but not unique. Australian War Memorial

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Afterwards

The end of World War I brought to Australians not tranquillity but unrest and anxiety, political, economic, cultural (a sense of being swamped by alien influences) and moral. Bolshevism threatened all, and explained to the establishment nearly every act of working-class

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Highlights reel: James Fallows on US military has Australian relevance

‘Highlights reel: James Fallows on “The tragedy of the American military”‘, Honest History, 14 January 2015 This long article in The Atlantic, January-February 2015, examines American attitudes to the military but makes points applicable to Australia, given the long-running change

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A fundamentally silly film: another perspective on The Water Diviner

‘A fundamentally silly film: another perspective on The Water Diviner’, Honest History, 13 January 2015 Honest History President, Peter Stanley, reviews Russell Crowe’s film, The Water Diviner. Other material on the film, including links to other reviews. See also our

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Daley, Paul: My Brother Jack 50 years on

Daley, Paul ‘My Brother Jack at 50 – the novel of a man whose whole life led up to it‘, Guardian Australia, 23 December 2014 Covers the novel (first published 1964), the author, George Johnston (died of alcohol and TB

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Crowe, Russell (dir.): The Water Diviner

Crowe, Russell (director) The Water Diviner, Fear of God Films and other production companies, Australia, 2014 Alison Broinowski briefly reviews the film for Honest History. A further review from Peter Stanley, including a link to an interview with the writers

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Back to Gelibolu: The Water Diviner reviewed

‘Back to Gelibolu’, Honest History, 22 December 2014 Honest History committee member Alison Broinowski reviews The Water Diviner, opening in theatres on Boxing Day ‘Gallipoli!’ demands Joshua Connor of a Turkish immigration clerk. ‘I want to go to Gallipoli!’ It

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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

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Bates, Sonja: Anzac Day legend

Bates, Sonja ‘The Anzac Day legend: its origins, meaning, power and impact on shaping Australia’s identity (Master’s of Peace and Conflict Studies dissertation, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney, 2013)‘ The Anzac legend lies at the centre

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Faber, David & Robert Henry: Remembrance duet

Faber, David & Robert Henry ‘Remembrance duet‘, Honest History, 2 December 2014 These two pieces, David Faber’s story of the Dardanelles cenotaph in Adelaide and Robert Henry’s poem ‘The valley’, illustrate how people at home tried to come to grips

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Remembrance duet

David Faber and Robert Henry ‘Remembrance duet’, Honest History, 2 December 2014 ‘The Dardanelles cenotaph: our unknown war memorial’ by David Faber © A war memorial stands unobtrusively in Adelaide’s South Parklands. Life flows quietly around this cenotaph and little attention

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Wounded and damaged soldiers then and now: Honest History Factsheet

This small collection highlights the trauma that is associated with all wars in all eras in all countries. It was provoked by an article in The Independent highlighting the photographs made by Bryan Adams of wounded British soldiers from Afghanistan.

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Thistleton, John: A place of healing (and a better way?)

Thistleton, John ‘How Robbie Poate’s parents returned to a place of painful memories and turned it into a place of healing‘, Canberra Times, 2 November 2014 Story about the memorial garden created outside of Canberra by the parents of Robbie

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Department of Veterans’ Affairs: Schooling, Service and the Great War

Veterans’ Affairs, Department of Schooling, Service and the Great War, The Department, Canberra, 2014 A secondary (Year 9) education resource, put together by DVA’s Commemoration Branch and Dr Rosalie Triolo of Monash University. This educational resource investigates the diverse experiences

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Those who teach, fight

‘Those who teach, fight’*, Honest History, 4 November 2014 David Stephens reviews a recent publication by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Schooling, Service and the Great War. _____________________________________________ The educational materials offered by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) have

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Cashen, Phil: Blogging the Great War

Cashen, Phil ‘Blogging the Great War from Gippsland‘, Honest History, 4 November 2014 Retired school principal and historian, Phil Cashen, writes about how he set up a blog, Shireatwar.com, on the story of the Shire of Alberton, Victoria, during the

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Blogging the Great War from Gippsland

Phil Cashen ‘Blogging the Great War from Gippsland’, Honest History, 4 November 2014 The genesis for the blog, Shireatwar.com, came from family history. My wife’s family came from the Shire of Alberton in Gippsland. They were dairy farmers. In World

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Pedersen, Peter: Anzac Treasures

Peter Pedersen Anzac Treasures: The Gallipoli Collection of the Australian War Memorial, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 2014 This landmark publication commemorates the centenary of the Great War’s Gallipoli campaign, 25 April 1915 to 9 January 1916. ANZAC Treasures approaches the subject of

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Stephens, David: Anzac Treasures follows a well-worn track

David Stephens ‘The well-worn track of commemoration’, Honest History, 23 October 2014 David Stephens reviews Peter Pedersen’s, Anzac Treasures: The Gallipoli Collection of the Australian War Memorial Anzac Treasures is a great big, complex book, just as the Australian War

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Columbans: Way of Peace materials

St Columbans Mission Society The Way of Peace: Anzac Centenary Edition (1915-2015) A set of discussion and action sheets enabling Christian reflection and response during the Anzac centenary and beyond. The materials cover growing a culture of peace, power and

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Reid, Richard: Faraway experience

Reid, Richard ‘That faraway experience: some thoughts on family history and the Western Front‘, Honest History, 7 October 2014 This article is based on a talk given to launch Family History Month at the National Archives of Australia head office,

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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

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Lest We Forget collection reviewed

‘Lest We Forget comes out of the West’, Honest History, 7 October 2014 Paddy Gourley* reviews Bobbie Oliver & Sue Summers, ed., Lest We Forget? Marginalised Aspects of Australia at War and Peace, Black Swan Press, Curtin University, Perth, WA,

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Lessons in the sand

The Australian Army has commenced ‘a significant study of Army’s institutional lessons of the past 15 years … Learning from operational experience and encoding in the force the key elements of those lessons is a core function for any professional

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Mayhew, Emily: Wounded

Mayhew, Emily Wounded: The Long Journey Home from the Great War, Random House, North Sydney, 2014; first published The Bodley Head, 2013; electronic version available; UK edition subtitled From Battlefield to Blighty 1914-1918 Wounded is the story of a journey:

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Sydney Great War exhibition looks at both sides

State Records of New South Wales has announced a number of initiatives which promise to give a reasonably balanced view of the state during the years 1914-18. The New South Wales Anzac Centenary website is in three parts: In Service –

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Going home: The War that Changed Us, ep. 4

‘Going Home’, the final episode of The War that Changed Us, mostly covers 1918 and the first year of peace but otherwise continues the approach of earlier episodes, interweaving the experiences of its six lead characters in Europe and Australia.

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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

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The War that Changed Us (Ep. 2): euphoria becomes hard slog

We were a bit late catching up with this week’s episode but this is what we thought. Episode 2 of The War that Changed Us grasps how quickly the mood changed in World War I, both among the men who

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Rizzetti, Janine: Victorians and WWI home front

Rizzetti, Janine ‘RHSV Conference: The Other Face of War: Victorians and the Home Front‘, The Resident Judge of Port Phillip [blog], 11 August 2014 Report of conference of Royal Historical Society of Victoria. Speakers included Bart Ziino (Deakin University) who ‘challenged

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The War that Changed Us not rose-tinted

There is lots of Anzac nostalgia television in the offing, with Anzac Girls notably underway already, leaving a somewhat frothy impression, though it is apparently based on diaries at the time. The nurses seem awfully young and fetching, the soldiers

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Stillman, Sarah: Hiroshima and the inheritance of trauma

Sarah Stillman ‘Hiroshima and the inheritance of trauma‘, New Yorker, 12 August 2014 In recent years, a public-health hypothesis has emerged that one of the world’s most poorly understood pandemics isn’t a conventional virus—like H1N1, say, or some hemorrhagic fever.

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Commemoration, celebration and contrition

Chris Sheedy in Fairfax Media talks to Bishop Tom Frame and Dr Craig Stockings about aspects of how we commemorate death in war. Stockings refers to ‘the tendency within Australia to selectively package and promote specific elements of the war

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Claven, Jim: Greek Anzac

Claven, Jim ‘From Asia Minor to Anzac Cove: the Odyssey of Peter Rados‘, Neos Kosmos, 11 August 2014 Story of an Anzac born in Ottoman Asia Minor, a member of Sydney’s Greek community. Landed at Gallipoli, 25 April 1915; killed

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Making war acceptable in the UK

The Ministry of Defence in the United Kingdom has been advising the government there about ways in which war can be made more palatable to the general public, including by reducing the ‘profile’ of repatriation ceremonies (code for returning the

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Review note: August guns

‘Review note: August guns’, Honest History, 8 August 2014 In the week that marked the centenary of the beginning of the Great War (as well as the 70th anniversary of the Cowra Breakout and the 69th anniversary of Hiroshima) it

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Senghor, Leopold Sedar: Senegalese sharpshooters

Senghor, Leopold Sedar ‘To Senegalese sharpshooters who died for France‘, No Glory in War 1914-1918 Senghor, one of Africa’s most noted poets and statesmen, wrote this poem in 1938-40. It is included here for three reasons: to remind us that

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Bastian, Peter: Andrew Fisher

Bastian, Peter Andrew Fisher: an Underestimated Man, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2009 Hoping to set the record straight, this biography asks why one of Australia’s greatest reformers has sunk into obscurity. Calling for a reevaluation of Andew Fisher’s career,

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Labour and the Great War reviewed

‘Labour and the Great War from a dozen perspectives’, Honest History, 4 August 2014 Ernst Willheim* reviews Frank Bongiorno, Raelene Frances and Bruce Scates, ed., Labour and the Great War: The Australian Working Class and the Making of Anzac, Australian

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Bongiorno, Frank, et al, ed.: Labour and the Great War

Bongiorno, Frank, Rae Frances & Bruce Scates, ed., Labour and the Great War: The Australian Working Class and the Making of Anzac, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Special edition, Labour History, 106, May 2014 Examines the awkward

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A Jauncey writes to the Prime Minister 1920 (4 August 2014)

In 1917 GEM (Eric) Jauncey was a victim of war paranoia in his employment at the University of Missouri. The security services of the Hughes Government in Australia had been in touch with their American counterparts who paid a visit

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Arango, Tim: Gallipoli and national identities

Arango, Tim ‘At Gallipoli, a campaign that laid ground for national identities‘, New York Times, 26 June 2014 An American views the Gallipoli legacy from both Turkish and Australian perspectives. He interviews Rupert Murdoch on the role of his father,

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MAPW et al: Enduring effects of war

Medical Association for Prevention of War, Act for Peace & History Teachers’ Association of Victoria The Enduring Effects of War: Introduction, MAPW, Act for Peace and HTAV, Melbourne, 2014 Comprehensive (125 pages) and realistic lesson materials (pdf with links) prepared

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Stephens, David: Conservative commemoration

Stephens, David ‘Anzac Centenary Local Grants: conservative commemoration’, Honest History, 30 June 2014 This note comments on the statistics set out in Honest History Factsheet No. 2 on the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program. Ken Inglis says in his book

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Moses, John A. & Davis, George F.: Anzac Day origins

Moses, John A. & George F. Davis Anzac Day Origins: Canon DJ Garland and Trans-Tasman Commemoration, Barton Books, Barton, ACT, 2013 Examines the origins of Anzac Day via a study of Garland, who ‘became known as the “architect” of ANZAC

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Noonan, David: recounting WWI casualties

Noonan, David Those We Forget: Recounting Australian Casualties of the First World War, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton, Vic., 2014 The book argues that ‘official Australian casualty statistics suffered by the men of the Australian Imperial Force in the First World

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Oliver, Bobbie & Sue Summers, ed.: marginalised remembrance

Oliver, Bobbie & Sue Summers, ed. Lest We Forget? Marginalised Aspects of Australia at War and Peace, Black Swan Press, Curtin University, Perth, WA, 2014 The book asks what is being remembered and what is being forgotten within our war

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Review note: Arts items miscellany

‘Review note: Arts items miscellany’, Honest History, 16 June 2014 Musician and music festival director, Chris Latham, discusses the impact of war service on composers, noting that ‘the trauma caused by the two world wars created a hiatus in the

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Burnside, Sarah: Alternatives to Anzac Day

Burnside, Sarah ‘What would alternatives to Anzac day look like?‘ Guardian Australia, 23 April 2014 Discusses an ‘alternative national story’ derived from social democratic reforms prior to the Great War, which were interrupted by the destruction and disruption of the

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Rose, James: Family at war

Rose, James ‘A family at war‘, Age, 14 April 2014 Raises issues about whether the final say in commemorating a dead service person rests with the state (represented in this case by the Australian War Memorial), supported by service organisations

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Stephens, David: Commemorating the survivors

Stephens, David ‘Commemorating the survivors’, Honest History, 24 February 2014 This is an Appendix to Michael Piggott’s review of the Australian War Memorial’s exhibition ANZAC Voices. It contains some confronting images. See also Kerry Neale’s paper. The photograph above is

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Stanley, Peter: Lost Boys of Anzac

Stanley, Peter Lost Boys of Anzac, NewSouth, Sydney, 2014 Australians remember the dead of 25 April 1915 on Anzac Day every year. But do we know the name of a single soldier who died that day? What do we really

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Daley, Paul: Australia’s forgotten soldiers

Daley, Paul ‘In the Anzac centenary, it’s time to honour Australia’s forgotten soldiers‘, Guardian Australia, 15 March 2014 The author notes the centenary expenditure of $8 million on refurbishing war graves and memorials in Australia and overseas. He refers to

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Hannaford, Scott: Silent war

Hannaford, Scott ‘The silent war‘, Canberra Times, 8 February 2014 Article and interactive material on the experiences of Australian veterans of the war in Afghanistan. While the technology of war has ‘advanced’ much of the evidence recounted could be applied

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Morrison, David: Welcome home parade

Morrison, David ‘Welcome Home Parade for 2nd Cavalry Regiment Task Group and Combined Team – Uruzgan Four and Five: Lieutenant General David Morrison, AO, Chief of Army Darwin, 1 March 2014‘ LTGEN Morrison spoke on the 113th anniversary of the founding

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Marks, Kathy: Keneally and Gallipoli

Marks, Kathy ‘Thomas Keneally: “I hope no one says Australia was born at Gallipoli”‘, Guardian Australia, 18 February 2014 Australia should “apologise to the ghosts” of young soldiers who survived the first world war but had to fight for compensation

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Brown, James: Anzac’s Long Shadow

Brown, James Anzac’s Long Shadow: The Cost of Our National Obsession, Black Inc, Melbourne, 2014; also available electronically “A century ago we got it wrong. We sent thousands of young Australians on a military operation that was barely more than

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Stanley, Peter: Anzac’s Long Shadow highlights a national obsession

Stanley, Peter Honest History’s President, Professor Peter Stanley, reviews and reflects on James Brown’s new book, Anzac’s Long Shadow. James Brown, Anzac’s Long Shadow: The Cost of Our National Obsession, Black Inc, Melbourne, 2014, $19.99; also available electronically James Brown,

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Stanley, Peter: Anzac’s Long Shadow highlights a national obsession

Stanley, Peter ‘Anzac’s Long Shadow highlights a national obsession’ Honest History President, Professor Peter Stanley, reviews James Brown’s book (published 11 February 2014) and finds parallels with the attitudes of Honest History to the way in which Australia is approaching

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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

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Piggott, Michael: Listening to ANZAC Voices

Piggott, Michael ‘Listening to ANZAC Voices‘, Honest History, 24 February 2014 Michael Piggott reviews the ANZAC Voices exhibition which opened at the Australian War Memorial in November 2013. He recognises the difficulties of compressing complex events into a small exhibition

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Schwartzkopf, Louise: Theatre for returned soldiers

Schwartzkopf, Louise ‘Theatre as a healing stage for returned soldiers‘, The Age, 25 January 2014 Afghanistan veterans act in a new play that relives some of their experiences and also has therapeutic benefits. The Long Way Home, a play by

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Daley, Paul: Black diggers

Daley, Paul ‘Black diggers: challenging Anzac myths‘, Guardian Australia, 14 January 2014 Looks at the stories of black servicemen during World War I, in the context of a new play ‘Black Diggers’. About 400 Indigenous Australians joined up. Notes that

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Jauncey at the Brandenburg Gate (11 December 2013)

When a popular tourist information website took the Honest History name in vain, it deserved a closer look. There, on Trip Advisor, an American ex-pat in Germany was ‘amazed’ at how ‘blunt and honest’ about ‘triumphs and failures’ the Deutsches

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Jauncey in a war cemetery (3 December 2013)

Battlefields and war cemeteries are not places I have visited often nor places I much like. I remember seeing on a back road in northern California in 1985 a battered sign which commemorated the last stand nearby of the local

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Scates, Bruce: Horrors of aftermath

Scates, Bruce ‘Horrors of Anzac aftermath laid bare‘, The Age, 7 November 2013 Digitising a sample of World War I repatriation files is set to change the way the Great War is remembered. We will see no more important initiative

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Larsson, Marina: Shattered Anzacs

Larsson, Marina Shattered Anzacs: Living with the Scars of War, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2009 Living with the Scars of War tells the untold story of thousands of Australian families who welcomed home disabled soldiers after the

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Thomson, Alistair: Anzac memories

Thomson, Alistair Anzac Memories: Living with the Legend, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Vic., new edition, 2013; first published Oxford University Press, 1994 In this new edition, Alistair Thomson explores how the Anzac legend has transformed over the past quarter century,

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Beaumont, Joan: Broken Nation

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

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McMullin, Ross: Grand days of hope and glory

McMullin, Ross ‘Grand days of hope and glory‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 October 2013 The popular myth is that Australia came of age amid the carnage of World War I. But years before Gallipoli, this young nation was internationally admired

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Lake, Marilyn: Fractured nation

Lake, Marilyn ‘Fractured nation’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 6, October 2013 Marilyn Lake writes that World War I led to the desolation of the national spirit, the nation’s joie de vivre and its high reputation in the world as an

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Triolo, Rosalie: Our schools and the war

Triolo, Rosalie Our Schools and the War: Victoria’s Education Department and the Great War, 1914-18, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, Vic., 2012 The Great War profoundly touched the lives of Australian teachers, school children and local communities, and with lasting

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Masters, Chris: Years that made us

Masters, Chris The Years That Made Us, ABC Video, 2013 (shown on ABC TV, June-July 2013) In Australian mythology nationhood was forged in the slaughter of Gallipoli in 1915. But in The Years That Made Us Chris Masters introduces a

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Martin, AW: Menzies

Martin, AW with Patsy Hardy Robert Menzies: A Life: Vol. 1: 1894-1943; Vol. 2: 1944-1978, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1993 and 1999; online edition Politically at sea during his first term (1939-41), colossus during his second (1949-66) where he

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Fitzhardinge, LF: Hughes

Fitzhardinge, LF William Morris Hughes: A Political Biography: Vol. 1: That Fiery Particle, 1862-1914; Vol. 2: The Little Digger, 1914-1952, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1978, 1979; electronic version available Fifty years of history of Australia as a nation from the

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Serle, Geoffrey: Monash

Serle, Geoffrey John Monash: A Biography, Melbourne University Press in association with Monash University, Carlton, Vic., 1982; later editions 2002, 2013 Engineer, business entrepreneur and World War I general, described by some as Australia’s greatest soldier but subject of anti-semitism.

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Vidal, Katie, Cathie Arkell & Joan Williamson: Wives of war

Vidal, Katie, Cathie Arkell & Joan Williamson Wives of War  (2009) (videos and transcripts) Wives from Afghanistan-Iraq, Vietnam and World War II talk about the impact of war service on them, their families and their husbands.

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Davison, Graeme: Car wars

Graeme Davison with Sheryl Yelland Car Wars: How the Car Won Our Hearts and Conquered Our Cities, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2004 War snuffs out lives and begets dreams. For servicemen and civilians alike, World War II was

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Fractured nation

‘During World War 1 Australia lost its way. Its enmeshment in the European war fractured the nation’s soul.’ Marilyn Lake In the year 1913 Canberra was born as our national capital on the very eve – as we now know

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Garton, Stephen: Costs of war

Garton, Stephen The Cost of War: Australians Return, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1996 The achievements of Australian servicemen and women have played a central role in shaping Australia’s national identity. But while we rightly commemorate the sacrifices of Australians in

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McMullin, Ross: Farewell Dear People

McMullin, Ross Farewell, Dear People: Biographies of Australia’s Lost Generation, Scribe, Melbourne, 2012 Collective biography of 10 Australians killed in World War I, emphasising the perennial outcome of major wars, the loss of many of the best people of a

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Hearder, Rosalind: POW history

Hearder, Rosalind ‘Memory, methodology and myth: some of the challenges of writing Australian prisoner of war history‘, Journal of the Australian War Memorial (2007) Discusses the relative lack of attention to POWs, the reticence of former POWs (partly due to

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McKernan, Michael: This war never ends

McKernan, Michael This War Never Ends: Australian Pows and Families, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 2001 An absorbing examination of what it was like to wait and to worry on the homefront during the years of the loved

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McKernan, Michael: Great War

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