In recent years Anzac – an idea as much as an actual army corps – has become the dominant force within Australian history, overshadowing everything else. The commemoration of Anzac Day is bigger than ever, while Remembrance Day, VE Day, VP Day and other military anniversaries grow in significance each year. Pilgrimages to Gallipoli, the Somme and Kokoda are commonplace and popular military history dominates the bestseller lists. Anzac has seemingly become a sacred, untouchable element of the nation. In this brave and controversial book, some of Australia’s leading historians dare to criticise Anzac. They show that the Anzac obsession distorts the rest of Australia’s history. They investigate official sponsorship of Anzac through commemoration and education and show that this has mobilised it as a conservative force, often for political ends. Finally—and perhaps most devastatingly—they ask whether the grief and loss associated with bloodshed on foreign shores was all worth it.

This second edition of Sydney’s Aboriginal Past draws on the latest historical, archaeological, geological, environmental and linguistic research, as well as oral evidence of present-day Aboriginal people, to reveal the diversity of Aboriginal life in the Sydney region before, during and for the first thirty years of British settlement. Val Attenbrow describes the different Aboriginal groups and how they lived; the resources available; the foods they ate and their means of obtaining them; their tools, weapons and equipment, and how they were made; where they camped; their shelters, clothing and personal adornment; their beliefs, ceremonial life and rituals; as well as their designs and images.

The relationship between history and fiction has always been a controversial one. Can we ever know that a historical narrative is giving us a true account of what actually happened? Provocative and fascinating, this book is an original and insightful examination of the ways in which history is – and might be – written. It traces History’s doubleness and divided nature, beginning with its founding figures, Herodotus and Thucydides, right up to the key figures of historical reflection, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Benedetto Croce, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault and Hayden White. The authors explore the challenges posed by postmodernism to history and the literary conventions of most historical writing. In this second edition they bring their history of history up to the present in their study of the History Wars and new approaches to world history and environmental history.

Few books have ever been produced under such harsh conditions as The Anzac Book. Created by soldiers under enemy fire and in extreme hardship, the illustrations, stories, cartoons and poems were intended as a Christmas and New Year diversion for soldiers facing a harsh winter in the trenches on Gallipoli. The Anzac Book became the finest ‘trench publication’ produced by soldiers during the Great War and was an instant bestseller when first released in 1916. This new edition includes a reproduction of the original book, a foreword by acclaimed author Les Carlyon, an introduction from Australian War Memorial historian Ashley Ekins and material originally rejected by the editor, official war correspondent Charles Bean, but preserved in the collections of the Memorial.

Over the years many books on Australian military history have given rise to a host of such ‘zombie’ myths – myths that refuse to die. A great many have a strong commemorative and celebratory tradition and aim to entertain or memorialise the gallant deeds of past Australian servicemen. Such accounts are often heavily overlayed by the national mythology of Anzac and imagery of indomitable Australian national character. Leading Australian military historians tackle ten of the most enduring historical zombies that have staggered their way through the annals of this nation’s military history. From the mistaken idea that there was no Aboriginal resistance to occupation, to Gallipoli as a near success, to Japanese designs to invade Australia in WWII, right up to the triumphal success that was East Timor, this book lays these zombies to rest once and for all.