This is an important book that should be read by as wide a range of historians as possible. Some will find it totally agreeable, others will find it very disagreeable, while others will agree with some parts of the book but not all. It is a book not just about the ‘militarisation of Australian history’, but, perhaps more importantly, about how Australians see themselves in the world.

The arguments put forward by these distinguished scholars, who collectively and individually have done so much to advance Australian history in many diverse ways, are as follows. Looking at Australian history in its entirety reveals that it is replete with issues of major importance. Here are just a few of them. Why did a frontier society such as Australia lead the world in giving votes to women? To what extent did the experiences of our first hundred years prove important in forming the Australian character? Why did we develop, so early, unique institutions such as the arbitration commission? The authors argue that in recent years these and other themes have been neglected in favour of military topics, to the extent that our history seems to jump from the South African veldt to Gallipoli to the Western Front to New Guinea to Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, with nothing apparently seen to be worthy of note in between.