Anzac
Subtitle: the unauthorised biography
By: Carolyn Holbrook ; foreword by Kim Beazley
Publisher: NewSouth Publishing
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Sydney, New South Wales
Language: eng
Number of pages: 266
ISBN-13: 9781742234076; 9781742247007; 9781742241814; 9781459683785
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918; Historiography; Nationalism and collective memory; Influence; Museums; Great Britain. Army. Australian and New Zealand Army Corps; Great Britain
Description: Raise a glass for an Anzac. Run for an Anzac. Camp under the stars for an Anzac. Is there anything Australians won't do to keep the Anzac legend at the centre of our national story? But standing firm on the other side of the Anzac enthusiasts is a chorus of critics claiming that the appetite for Anzac is militarising our history and indoctrinating our children. So how are we to make sense of this struggle over how we remember the Great War? Anzac, the Unauthorised Biography cuts through the clamour to provide a much-needed historical perspective on the battle over Anzac. It traces how, since 1915, Australia's memory of the Great War has declined and surged, reflecting the varied and complex history of the Australian nation itself. Most importantly, it asks why so many Australians persist with the fiction that the nation was born on 25 April 1915.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-255) and index.
Table of contents: title: The Anzac Ascendancy; title: Before 1914: Nationalism and war; title: 1916-1936: Early histories of the Great War; title: 1920s-1930s: The Great War in Australian literature; title: 1940s-1960s: Marxism and memory of the Great War; title: 1965-1985: The fall and rise of memory of the Great War; title: 1980s-present: The Great War as family history; title: Since 1990: Politicians and commemoration of the Great War.