When the honour of Australia’s revered soldiers is questioned, so, too, is the national self-image. But war is an ugly business, and we pay a price for tethering it so tightly to our identity.
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Articles on Gallipoli
Displaying 1 - 20 of 27 articles
As Spanish flu ravaged the world in 1919, Australians found novel ways to commemorate Anzac Day, and they will do so again this year.
There is no weapon more visceral than the bayonet. It encourages an intimate form of killing, and during WW1, Australia troops plunged, parried and stabbed with great vigour.
At Gallipoli this Anzac Day, thousands of Turkish youth will re-enact a march that stopped the Anzac advance in 1915. The march has taken on new significance in Turkey since an attempted coup in 2016.
As tens of thousands of injured soldiers filled the UK's overwhelmed hospitals, the scale of World War I became all too apparent.
Australians boast of our warrior participation in every major war since 1899, and in every modern Olympiad since 1896.
In 1960, historian Ken Inglis wondered if Anzac functioned as a secular religion in Australian society. In 2017, we can confidently answer: yes, it does.
Like Australia, China traditionally commemorates those who served in war in April each year, and increasingly they do it via social media.
The Gallipoli campaign has, in recent years, increasingly become part of the culture wars in Turkey associated with the rise of political Islam.
The 20th anniversary of the massacre at Port Arthur again raises pressing questions about ways of remembering the tragedy.
Might the rise of heritage tourism and the increasing ease of international travel lead to more of Australia’s military experiences overseas being better understood?
Gallipoli has become an enduring symbol of World War I's futile carnage. But the campaign did have a purpose.
For those who were there one hundred years ago, Gallipoli was not the stuff of legend that it later became, but a site of regret and despair.
Henry Moseley, one of the outstanding young scientists of his generation, was shot and killed in the trenches of Gallipoli. But his death helped change the way that scientists are used in wartime.
Tackling Gallipoli is an onerous challenge: it carries baggage that must be accommodated or unpacked with extreme care. Western Australian artist Lev Vykopal’s two exhibitions offer a mix of reverence, analysis, critique and poetry.
Although more than 100,000 Australians have lost their lives as a result of war service, photographs of our dead have never been published in newspapers.Perhaps we should reconsider this.
It is naïve to expect men to kill and die for their country, to live through the horrors of a particularly barbaric war, and to come out the other end unscathed – despite our popular myths.
As Australians commemorate the Anzacs who died at Gallipoli, spare a thought for the 10,000 French soldiers who also died on the Dardanelles in the first world war.
In 1915 and 1916, the Ottoman Armenians were destroyed as an organised community and more than one million of their number were killed – just as the Allies' failed invasion of Gallipoli took place.
When Australian soldiers fought at Gallipoli, they did so under the Union Jack. Our flag has changed since then and debates about national identity have shifted. Is it now time for a new flag?
Top contributors
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Senior Lecturer in Sociology, School of Creative Industries, University of South Australia
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Professor of Classics, La Trobe University
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ARC DECRA Fellow at Deakin University, Deakin University
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Chair Professor, Istanbul Bilgi University
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Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University
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University Historian and Principal Research Fellow, History, University of Sydney
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Professor of Science Communication and Chemistry, University of Hull
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Honorary associate, Sydney College of Arts, University of Sydney
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Lecturer in Journalism, La Trobe University
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Professor, Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence, School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle
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Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University
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ANU Visiting Professor, Politics and International Relations, Australian National University
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Professor, Chief Cultural Officer, Cultural Precinct, University of Western Australia
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Senior Lecturer, Classics and Ancient History and Director of Teaching and Learning (ugrad), School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University
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Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University
