Join us online or in person for a special lightning seminar with Mia Martin Hobbs, Joan Beaumont, Carolyn Holbrook, Meggie Hutchison, Martin Crotty, and Kate Ariotti.
Challenging Anzac: stories that don’t fit the legend
The Anzac legend has shaped Australia’s national identity for more than a century. Yet many experiences of war do not fit comfortably within thi
s. In Challenging Anzac, leading historians explore some of these stories: Aboriginal activists, deserters on the Western Front, veterans who took their own lives and soldiers who became radicalized by their service. They reveal how episodes in Australia’s war history that unsettled the Anzac legend – from the relief of Tobruk, nuclear testing on Australian soil and feminist protests against war, to alleged atrocities in Afghanistan – have been elided or adapted to ‘fit’ the legend.
The Challenging Anzac collection has been supported by the Centre for Contemporary Histories from the beginning. To celebrate publication, we share insights from some of our authors on their chapters:
Kate Ariotti and Martin Crotty: ‘A Man of Distinction? The strange case of Private Nicholas Permakoff’
Meggie Hutchison: ‘Soldier Suicide: First World War veterans’ deaths in Queensland’
Joan Beaumont: ‘‘Alien to our Splendid Tradition’: The relief of Tobruk, 1941’
Mia Martin Hobbs: ‘Crimes cloaked in Anzac: Australian Special Forces and allegations of atrocities in Afghanistan’
14 April 2026, 11am AEST
Burwood: C2.05.01
Waurn Ponds: IC1.108
Zoom: Click here
Kate Ariotti is a historian at the University of Queensland. Her research examines the social and cultural impacts of war in Australia. Kate’s research has centred on the experiences of Australian prisoners of war in both world wars, and she is currently working on an Australian Research Council–funded history of the Australian war corpse. Martin Crotty is a historian at the University of Queensland. Martin has published widely on Australian masculinity and militarism, Australian war memory and its implications, the Returned and Services League and veterans. He is the editor of The Great Mistakes of Australian History (UNSW Press, 2006), Anzac Legacies: Australians and the Aftermath of War (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2010) and The Politics of Veteran Benefits in the Twentieth-Century: A Comparative History (Cornell, 2020). They are researching the stories and experiences of the 115 Australian soldiers who were sentenced to death in the First World War.
Meggie Hutchison is a lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra. Her research examines the policies and practices of care for Australian veterans and the cultural legacies of war. Her current work focuses on the history of veteran suicide in Australia. She is the author of Painting War: A History of Australia’s First World War Art Scheme (Cambridge University Press, 2018). She is also a co-editor of Portraits of Remembrance: Painting, Memory and the First World War (University of Alabama Press, 2020) and Exiting War: The British Empire and the 1918–20 Moment (Manchester University Press, 2022).
Joan Beaumont is an internationally recognised historian of Australia in the two world wars, the history of prisoners of war, and the memory and heritage of war. Her publications include Gull Force: Australian POWS on Ambon and Hainan, 1941–45; Australia’s Great Depression; and the critically acclaimed Broken Nation: Australians and the Great War, joint winner of the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Award (Australian History), the 2014 NSW Premier’s Award (Australian History), the 2014 Queensland Literary Award for History and the Australian Society of Authors’ 2015 Asher Award.
Mia Martin Hobbs is an oral historian of war and conflict, with a research focus on the Vietnam War, War on Terror, gender, peace, security and postwar reconciliation. Her first book, Return to Vietnam: An Oral History of American and Australian Veterans’ Journeys, won the Oral History Australia Book Award in 2022 and was highly commended for the Memory Studies First Book Award in 2023. She has written widely on anti-war veteran activism, war crimes and the impact of the Anzac revival on Australian veterans’ war memory. She is an ARC DECRA fellow at Deakin University.
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