Griffith Review 48: Enduring Legacies

Susan Hornbeck, Associate Publisher, Griffith REVIEW

Enduring Legacies
Edited by JULIANNE SCHULTZ & PETER COCHRANE
Edition 48 • APRIL 2015 • RRP $27.99 / NZ $35.00

Anniversaries can be more than occasions for remembrance; they may transform our understanding of what is being commemorated. -Tim Bonyhady, from Enduring Legacies

2015 is a seminal year in Australian history, marking the centenary of the Gallipoli offensive, the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War in the Pacific, and the fortieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

Political agendas require a national story that is simple, fixed and inviolable. In the next four years, more than $300 million will be spent on commemorating the Centenary of Anzac . . . but the increasingly politicised nature of commemorative ceremonies raises significant questions about the mythologised treatment of warfare. Modern Australia is a product of the great wars of last century. They transformed the society in ways we don’t often recognise.

We need to move away from celebration and commemoration of the Anzac legend. We need to reflect, not only on the actions of those wars, but on their consequences and enduring legacies. Long after the triumph and tragedy of the battlefield subsides, there persists the enduring human, political, economic and military costs of war. The battles are important, but the lessons to be learnt in their aftermath need to be interrogated to explain how we got to where we are.

Griffith Review: Enduring Legacies draws together distinguished soldiers, military historians, academics and popular writers to challenge myths and explore the multifaceted legacies of the wars of the twentieth century, providing new insights, graphic portraits and telling analysis of their consequences.

The legacies of Anzac story-making, whether praising Australian virtues or highlight in loss and sacrifice, are in many respects efforts to render meaningful the unfathomable pain and anguish experienced by generations of Australians as a consequence of war. – Stephen Garton, from Enduring Legacies

Contributors include John Clarke, Clare Wright, Tim Rowse, Jenny Hocking, Peter Cochrane, Tim Bonyhady, Peter Stanley, Frank Bongiorno, Joy Damousi, Cory Taylor, Jim Davidson, Barry Hill, Marina Larsson, Rosetta Allan, Gerhard Fischer, Laura Jan Shore, Ben Stubbs, Gerard Windsor, Ross McMullin, Jill Brown, David Walker, Jeannine Baker, Craig Cliff, Paul Ham, Meredith McKinney, David McKnight, Tom Bamforth, Stephen Garton, David Carlin, James Brown, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Christopher Pugsley and Greg Lockhart.