Overview

In the half-century preceding the Great War there was a dramatic shift in the mindset of Australia’s political leaders, from a profound sense of safety in the Empire’s embrace to a deep anxiety about abandonment by Britain. Collective memory now recalls a rallying to the cause in 1914, a total identification with British interests and the need to defeat Germany. But there is an underside to this story: the belief that the newly federated nation’s security, and its race purity, must be bought with blood. Before the war Commonwealth governments were concerned not with enemies in Europe but with perils in the Pacific. Fearful of an ‘awakening Asia’ and worried by opposition to the White Australia policy, they prepared for defence against Japan—only to find themselves fighting for the Empire on the other side of the world. Prime Minister Billy Hughes spoke of this paradox in 1916, urging his countrymen: ‘I bid you go and fight for white Australia in France.’ In this vital and illuminating book, Peter Cochrane examines how the racial preoccupations that shaped Australia’s preparation for and commitment to the war have been lost to popular memory.

Full Product Details

9781925603750

Table of Contents

Reviews

`Unsettling-it challenges so powerfully the traditional telling of the Anzac story.' * Peter Stanley, professor of history at UNSW Canberra and author of Lost Boys of Anzac * `Revelatory history at its best. Every Australian politician, journalist and high-school student should read this fluent and compelling story that exhumes an unpalatable truth about our motives for going to war in 1914, and reflect on what it tells us about race fear and the value of history.' * Stephen FitzGerald, chairman of China Matters, former diplomat and author of Comrade Ambassador * `The words White Australia and Anzac rarely keep company. In this brilliant and provocative reassessment, Peter Cochrane strips away the layers of myth to show that for Australian leaders World War I was a white racial struggle, with fear of Japan and distrust of Britain, as much as loathing of Germany, at its heart. After Best We Forget, Australia's war should never look quite the same again.' -- Frank Bongiorno, professor of history at the ANU and author of The Eighties `A great read, and an important contribution to making forgotten history more accessible-the kind of book that will seep into the national consciousness over time.' -- Tim Watts, federal MP and co-author of Two Futures

`Revelatory history at its best. Every Australian politician, journalist and high-school student should read this fluent and compelling story that exhumes an unpalatable truth about our motives for going to war in 1914, and reflect on what it tells us about race fear and the value of history.' * Stephen FitzGerald, chairman of China Matters, former diplomat and author of Comrade Ambassador * `The words White Australia and Anzac rarely keep company. In this brilliant and provocative reassessment, Peter Cochrane strips away the layers of myth to show that for Australian leaders World War I was a white racial struggle, with fear of Japan and distrust of Britain, as much as loathing of Germany, at its heart. After Best We Forget, Australia's war should never look quite the same again.' -- Frank Bongiorno, professor of history at the ANU and author of The Eighties `A great read, and an important contribution to making forgotten history more accessible-the kind of book that will seep into the national consciousness over time.' -- Tim Watts, federal MP and co-author of Two Futures

Author Information

Peter Cochrane’s writing about war includes the award-winning Simpson and the Donkey: The Making of a Legend; the companion volume to the ABC TV series Australians at War; and two studies of wartime photography, The Western Front, 1916–18 and Tobruk 1941. Cochrane is also the author of Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy, which won the Age Book of the Year award and the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History, and two works of fiction: the novella Governor Bligh and the Short Man and the recently published novel The Making of Martin Sparrow.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available