Fifty years after The Broken Years, Bill Gammage’s classic on World War One soldiers, was published, provocative military historian Peter Stanley argues why it’s vital for Australians to understand how our military past has been created. By whom, how and with what consequences.
Stanley explores military history and the storytellers – from historians Charles Bean, Henry Reynolds, Joan Beaumont and David Horner to ‘’storians’ Peter FitzSimons and Les Carlyon. And grapples with what it means to write military history, its different approaches, the rise of popular writers and much more. He asks readers to consider a genre that plays a central role in the Australian identity, but many take for granted.
The book is out on 1 November, published by NewSouth.
Peter Stanley is President of the Defending Country Memorial Project Inc., which argues that the Australian War Memorial must properly recognise and commemorate the Australian (Frontier) Wars. He writes here about the history of the Frontier Wars.
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