Overview

The book explores the intersection between the Great War and patriotism through an examination of the effects of both on Australia’s most popular football code. The work is chronological, and therefore provides an easy path by which events may be followed. Ultimately it seeks to shine a light on and provide considerable detail to a much-ignored period in Australian Rules football history, including women’s football history, that was subject to much upheaval and which reflected considerable social and class divisions in society at the time. One hundred years on, the Australian Football League presents past soldier footballers as unequivocal representatives of a unifying national ‘Anzac’ spirit. That is far from the reality of football’s First World War experience.

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9783319578422

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Reviews

This is an important contribution to World War I sport history and is extensively well researched, using primary and secondary sources. This book is a must-read for individuals with an interest in sport in Australia or across the globe during World War I. (Micheal D. Warren, Journal of Sport History, Vol. 46, 2019)

Author Information

Dale Blair is Historian at Deakin University, Australia. Rob Hess is Associate Professor in Sport History at Victoria University, Australia.

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