Beyond the Broken Years Australian military history in 1000 books

What does Australia’ s military history reveal about us? In Beyond the Broken Years – fifty years after Bill Gammage’ s acclaimed The Broken Years 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.

Peter Stanley is one of Australia’ s best-known military historians. Recently retired as Research Professor at UNSW Canberra, he was the Principal Historian at the Australian War Memorial, where he worked from 1980 to 2007. Peter is the author of more than forty books, including Bad Characters: Sex, Crime, Mutiny, Murder and the AIF, which jointly won the Prime Minister’ s Prize for Australian History in 2011. For NewSouth he’ s published Lost Boys of Anzac (2011), Armenia, Australia & the Great War (with Vicken Babkenian, 2016) and Charles Bean: Man, myth, legacy (editor, 2017).

Introduction: from memory to history Part I A Short History of Australian Military History 1 The Story of Anzac: Australian military history to 1974 2 The Broken Years: Australian military history rediscovered 3 The Myth of the Digger: Anzac investigated 4 Hellfire: rise of the ‘ Storians Part II Before Anzac 5 Blood on the Wattle: the Australian wars 6 But Little Glory: colonial military history 7 Lion and Kangaroo: the federal years Part III The Great War and after 8 Anzac Battlefield: Gallipoli 9 Diggers in France: the Western Front 10 Horseman, Pass By: Sinai, Palestine and beyond 11 A Divided Society: Australians at war 12 Shattered Anzacs: between the wars 13 Australia in the War: official histories Part IV The Second World War 14 The Thirty-Niners: the Mediterranean war 15 Chased by the Sun: air war over Europe 16 Kriegies: PoWs in Europe 17 The Japanese Thrust 18 P.O.W. Australians Under Nippon: captives in Asia 19 Australia 1942: End of Innocence 20 Kokoda Front Line: New Guinea 21 On the Home Front: Australians at war 22 Hell’ s Battlefield: New Guinea and the islands 23 High Command: politics and strategy 24 The Six Years War: the Second World War official histories Part V Post-1945 25 The Forgotten War: BCOF, Korea and the Cold War 26 Australia’ s War in Vietnam 27 Other People’ s Wars: peace and peacekeeping 28 Born of Fire and Ash: conflict after 2001 Part VI Themes in Australian military history 29 Inventing Anzac 30 They Dared Mightily: heroes 31 The Commanders: biography 32 No Memory for Pain: memoirs 33 HMAS Australia: the Royal Australian Navy 34 A Thousand Men at War: (Army) unit histories 35 The Third Brother: the Royal Australian Air Force 36 Thanks, Girls and Goodbye: women’ s wars 37 Celluloid Anzacs: Australian military history in film 38 And the Band Played On: war and culture 39 War by Stealth: special and secret 40 Revealing Secrets: codes and code-breakers 41 Our Mob Served: First Nations at war 42 Soldiers and Aliens: ethnicity and Anzacs 43 A Stout Pair of Boots: battlefields 44 The Cost of War: aftermaths 45 Sacred Places: memory and memorials 46 What’ s Wrong with Anzac?: critiques and challenges 47 The Once and Future Army: the Australian Defence Force 48 A Military History of Australia: overviews 49 A Dictionary of Australian Military History: Australian military history now 50 This War Never Ends: the future of Australian military history Index