The History Council of Victoria is running a webinar on 19 November to discuss the book Challenging Anzac with its editor Mia Martin Hobbs, Carolyn Holbrook and Joan Beaumont. Details and registration.
The Anzac legend has shaped Australia’s national identity for more than a century. Yet many experiences of war do not fit within it; and this book covers lots and lots of them.
In Challenging Anzac, leading historians explore some of these stories: Aboriginal activists, deserters on the Western Front, veterans who took their own lives, and soldiers who became radicalised by their service. They reveal how episodes in Australia’s war history that unsettled the Anzac legend – from the relief of Tobruk, nuclear testing on Australian soil and feminist protests against war, to alleged atrocities in Afghanistan – have been elided or adapted to ‘fit’ the legend.
A review of the book by Michael Piggott.
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