Australians remember the dead of 25 April 1915 on Anzac Day every year. But do we know the name of a single soldier who died that day? What do we really know about the men supposedly most cherished in the national memory of war? Peter Stanley goes looking for the Lost Boys of Anzac: the men of the very first wave to land at dawn on 25 April 1915 and who died on that day. There were exactly 101 of them. They were the first to volunteer, the first to go into action, and the first of the 60,000 Australians killed in that conflict. Lost Boys of Anzac traces who these men were, where they came from and why they came to volunteer for the AIF in 1914. It follows what happened to them in uniform and, using sources overlooked for nearly a century, uncovers where and how they died, on the ridges and gullies of Gallipoli – where most of them remain to this day. And we see how the Lost Boys were remembered by those who knew and loved them, and how they have since faded from memory.
For the entire Anzac campaign, Quinn's Post was central to the defence of the positions at Gallipoli. Its loss would have opened the way to a Turkish assault on the heart of the Anzac areas. It is one of the most evocative names at Gallipoli along with Anzac Cove, Lone Pine and the Nek. Yet we know very little more about Quinn's than we did in 1924. No one, since the publication of Bean's first two volumes, has studied the significance of the post of what it was like to serve there. Delving into the history of Quinn's as a key part of the Anzac line, this book illuminates what it was like to live, fight and die there for a succession of Australian, New Zealand and British units. It tells the story of Quinn's, drawing substantially on the words of those who served there. Peter Stanley concentrates on the dramatic first months of the campaign, but also devotes attention to the New Zealand period (June-July), to the underground war and to the forgotten months in the autumn and winter when the 17th Battalion held the post, exposing some aspects for the first time.
For Fear of Pain offers a social history of the operating room in Britain during the final decades of painful surgery. It asks profound questions: how could surgeons operate upon conscious patients? How could patients submit? It presents a revisionist view of surgery, hygiene, nursing, military and naval surgery and the introduction of anaesthesia.
In the hands of Peter Stanley, one of Australia's leading military historians, a famous battlefield in France becomes unforgettably connected with Australian men and their families in the long aftermath of the Great War.
Australians have celebrated the Anzacs for nearly a century--but what do we really know of what war did to them? Charles Bean, historian of the citizen soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force, wrote that its history spanned 'the good and the bad'--but so far Australians have only looked at the good. Leading war historian Peter Stanley reveals the citizen soldiers the army regarded as its 'bad characters'. These were men who went absent and deserted, caught or concealed VD, got drunk and fought their comrades, who stole, malingered, behaved insolently toward officers or committed more serious offences, including rape and murder. This frank history--the first book on the AIF's indiscipline--shows that it became one of the war's most effective fighting forces in spite of its record for military misbehaviour. Stanley exposes, with a wealth of examples drawn from court-martial files and soldiers' letters, how the war turned some men into criminals, but also how bad characters made the AIF the superb force it was.
In 1945, 240 Australians died taking the small Borneo island of Tarakan from the Japanese. The tragedy of Tarakan was that by the time they succeeded, they need not have begun. Peter Stanley explores that battle, what it was like and what it means to us over fifty years on. He traces the operation from its origins in MacArthur's GHQ, down to the rifle sections patrolling in Tarakan's rugged jungle. Tarakan: An Australian Tragedy suggests new ways of looking at Australia's experience of war. It critically appraises the view that the Borneo campaign was unnecessary, arguing that it was a justifiable operation doomed by the politics of coalition warfare and by bad planning. Tarakan: An Australian Tragedy illuminates the Australian experience of war. Through it, we can hear the men on Tarakan - scared, angry, humorous, proud, bitter and, above all, Australian - the voices of a vanished Australia. Tarakan: An Australian Tragedy is the story of people at war, how it affected them, and how we have remembered it and them.
A compelling, riveting read, Commando to Colditz is an unusual — perhaps unique — war story. It is centred around a most unusual war hero: Michael 'Micky' Burn, soldier, poet and novelist, whose journey from fascist follower, to commander of Six Troop, to Commando, to prisoner (and communist lecturer) in the notorious prison of Colditz forms the focal point of this powerful narrative. In 1942 Micky led his commando troop of 28 men on one of the most daring raids of the Second World War, the assault on the French port of St Nazaire. As a result of this 'night of fire and death', fourteen of Micky's men were killed; seven, including Burn, were captured. Micky's bond with his soldiers is at the story's heart. Before the raid, he had asked his parents to write to his men's families if the worst should happen; the result was the creation of a rich and moving archive of letters between these grieving or anxious families, letters that illuminate the lives and deaths of a small but close-knit group of British soldiers and those who loved them.
The Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people - wreaking a greater human toll than any other fire in Australia's history. Ten of those people died in Steels Creek, a small community on Melbourne's outskirts. It was a beautiful place, which its residents had long treasured and loved. By the evening of 7 February 2009, it looked like a battlefield.Prize-winning historian Peter Stanley tells the dramatic stories of this small town on that one terrifying evening - of epic fights to save houses, of escapes, and of deaths. But Black Saturday at Steels Creek also tells the tale of a community - of people's attachments to the valley and to each other - and how, over the weeks and years that followed, they lived with the aftermath of the fire.The most detailed account of any one community to emerge from the fire, Black Saturday at Steels Creek shows what Black Saturday means not only for Steels Creek, but also for Australia as a whole.'The most significant topic in this warming world of ours. An important and deeply moving book.' Adrian Hyland, Author of Kinglake-350'Insightful and comprehensive ... what sets it apart is the coverage of the diverse range of experiences.' Dr Kevin Tolhurst, Senior Bushfire Researcher
Based on the most famous animal in Australian history Simpson's Donkey tells the story of his service during the Gallipoli campaign where for three weeks he was one of several donkeys that Simpson used to carry wounded men down to Anzac Cove. His life before and after Gallipoli is a mystery but Peter Stanley beautifully imagines the rest for the reader. Stanley tells the donkey's story--in the donkey's own voice--taking the reader on a journey from the Aegean island of Lemnos to Gallipoli to Egypt, Palestine and then back to Gallipoli at the end of the Great War. In doing so Simpson's Donkey not only brings the donkey's story to life it also brings the horrible realities of war to the fore. The war is the backdrop to the donkey's tale and as we follow the little donkey on his journey we also learn about the war and its terrible impact on people and animals alike. The story begins with the donkey being separated from his adored mistress Sofya when the Greeks occupy Lemnos in 1913, and after various adventures--in which each new owner calls him by a new name--he returns to Gallipoli in 1919 to be reunited with his beloved Sofya. From village beast of burden to hospital pet, to supply carrier for the war in the desert, the donkey's story is an adventurous journey on which he meets courage and cruelty, and comradeship between human and donkey alike.
Smiths were among the first men to land at Gallipoli. Smiths fought and died at Pozieres, Bullecourt and Passchendaele. Smiths were wounded - and treated by doctors and nurses named Smith. At home, Smiths penned patriotic doggerel and spoke vociferously against conscription. There was Grace Cossington Smith and her iconic painting The Sock Knitter, and Victor Smith, who designed a guided missile in his dad's workshop in suburban Brisbane. Australia's Smiths included the AIF's senior policeman, a Jewish VC, and the war's most famous Australian aviators. They and thousands of more humble Smiths reflect the hopes and fears, the tragedies and the triumph of Australia in the Great War. Then there are the German-Australian Smiths, the Schmidts, who fought for Australia even as Schmidts at home were vilified and interned. Just as the Great War affected all Australians, we can see the great range of their experience through the lives and deaths of those sharing the most common, representative surname.
1942 was a key year in Australia's history. As its people had so long feared, White Australia, an outpost of empire, seemed about to be invaded by the Japanese. In that one year, Darwin was bombed, submarines torpedoed ships in Sydney Harbour and Australian Militiamen died on the Kokoda Trail.Each year, more and more Australians celebrate Anzac Day and honour the lives of those who fought for their country. There is even a push to create a new public holiday, in remembrance and celebration of the 'Battle for Australia'. But was there ever really such a battle, and how close did Australia actually come to being invaded? Invading Australia provides a comprehensive, thorough and well-argued examination of these and other pertinent questions. Peter Stanley writes compellingly about Australian attitudes to Japan before, during and after World War II, and uses archival sources to discuss Japan's war plans early in 1942. He also shows that rather than a 'Battle for Australia' there was a worldwide fight for freedom and democracy that has allowed the West to enjoy great prosperity in the decades since 1945.
The most comprehensive compilation of the works of Abelard and Heloise ever presented in a single volume in English, The Letters and Other Writings features an accurate and stylistically faithful new translation of both The Calamities of Peter Abelard and the remarkable letters it sparked between the ill-fated twelfth-century philosopher and his brilliant former student and lover—an exchange whose intellectual passion, formal virtuosity, and psychological drama distinguish it as one of the most extraordinary correspondences in European history. Thanks to this edition, Latin-less readers will be better placed than ever to see why this undisputed milestone in the intellectual life of medieval France is also a masterpiece of Western literature. In addition to the The Calamities and the letters--the first complete English translation of all seven in more than eighty years--this volume includes an Introduction, a map, and a chronology, Abelard's Confession of Faith, letters between Heloise and Peter the Venerable, the Introduction to The Questions of Heloise, and selected songs and poems by Abelard, among them a previously untranslated shaped poem, Open Wide Your Eyes. Extracts of lost letters sometimes ascribed to Abelard and Heloise are given in appendixes.
The Great War of 1914-1918 affected all Australians and decisively changed the new nation. They were 'The Crying Years' according to writer Zora Cross, who lost her brother in 1917. This visual history of Australia's Great War offers a different perspective on a period of time familiar to many. It helps to connect the war overseas - the well-chronicled battles at Gallipoli, Fromelles, Passchendaele and Villers-Bretonneux - with the equally bitter war at home, for and against conscription, over 'loyalty' and 'disloyalty'. Men faced life-changing choices: volunteer to fight or stay at home; join the revolutionary unionists or break the strikes. Women bore the burdens of waiting and worrying, of working for charities, or of voting to send men to their deaths. Even children were drawn into the animosities, as their communities fractured under the stress. Prize-winning historian Professor Peter Stanley of UNSW Canberra uses documents, photographs, artefacts and images from the collections of the National Library of Australia to evoke the drama and tragedy, suffering and sacrifice, pain and pity of Australia's Great War.
With a twist of fate - and of historical fact - Gallipoli was a military success, Australia had a female prime minister in the 1920s and Gough Whitlam chose his time to retire from the top job. In Victory on Gallipoli and Other What-ifs of Australian History, prominent historians contemplate how Australia today could have been a very different place but for a decision made or not made, an opportunity taken or not taken. These are the nation's sliding door moments, our alternative history. The Cold War had the world teetering on the edge of mutually assured destruction. What if it had heated up? What if the 1951 referendum to outlaw the Communist Party had been successful? Would Australia have had its own McCarthy era and where would we be today? With essays by Janette Bomford, Guy Hansen, Carolyn Holbrook, Walter Kudrycz, Michael McKernan, Ross McMullin, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, John Maynard, Michael Molkentin, Roslyn Russell, Peter Stanley, Craig Wilcox and Clare Wright.
In Bad Characters military historian Peter Stanley surveys indiscipline in the Australian Imperial Force, on a spectrum ranging from bludging and dumb insolence, though malingering and shirking, to military offences going beyond the force s celebrated larrikinism. He tells of soldiers who committed offences ranging from the endemic going absent to desertion and a small number of serious civil crimes culminating in several murders. The AIF s discipline encompassed serious riots and strikes, ending in the disbandment mutinies of 1918. Its indiscipline did not end in 1919, but continued while the force was repatriated to Australia, and continued in folklore and anecdote into the peace. Little to nothing has been published about the AIF s dark side about how war made men into criminals; how men let themselves and their mates down by going absent or wounding themselves. Little has been told about riots and protests, or of the toll exacted by venereal disease that afflicted so many. In Bad Characters Peter Stanley decides to face the bad. We learn things about the AIF that many may wish they did not know. But we will also understand more about the men of the AIF, the society they came from, and the war that changed or ended the lives of so many.
Teaching how to get the most out of your experience when visiting an Australian battlefield, Peter Stanley—a veteran of battlefield research in Borneo, Egypt, Turkey, and France—advises how to prepare for and conduct battlefield research. He gives wide-ranging and practical hints and tips, including what to take, whether to go alone or in a group, how to stay safe, who to contact before you go, and how to avoid getting sick while you're there. Drawing on his own extensive experience, and that of many of his friends and colleagues, Peter sends an inspiring message to get out of the armchair and walk the ground where Australia's military history was made.
Through 67 hands-on lessons, this book guides photography educators and students through the process of making stunning images and using these skills to tell stories that engage and inspire an audience. The reader will gain a strong foundation in DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY and a joy for pursuing and sharing powerful photo stories. To understand the path ahead, a brief distinction is made between photography, photojournalism and documentary photography. Seven COMPOSITION tricks are explored through forty activities to learn how to make meaningful photographs that hold the viewer's eye. This builds through activities to help photographers step out of their comfort zone to capture engaging SUBJECTS in the surrounding community. With skills and practice in place, the final focus is the PHOTO ESSAY which includes eight guided major projects that encourage the photographer to connect with the subject through research and multiple visits. Beginners and advanced photographers with any camera can enjoy and learn from each lesson that has been inspired by some of the world's most notable photographers, including: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Vivian Meier, William Albert Allard and Paul Nicklen. PETER STANLEY is an award winning photographer with publications in National Geographic, BBC, The Guardian and The Telegraph. He was raised in Tanzania and has lived in Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, USA and Romania. He studied wildlife ecology and conservation and has been a biology teacher for 15 years. This book is a culmination of his Masters of the Arts in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the London College of Communications. All images by Peter Stanley www.photopoa.com
William Shakespeare was the son of a glovemaker, a small-town boy with a grammar school education. Yet he grew up to become the greatest English-speaking playwright in the world. Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare is both his story and that of a great art rediscovered in the modern world. Drama had been forgotten since the days of ancient Greece, but it reemerged in Elizabethan London with the building of the first modern theater. Its impact can still be imagined today. There were the theaters, open to the weather and featuring neither sets nor curtains, but equipped with dramatic special effects. There were the companies of actors--the leading men, the comedians, the boys who played women's roles--and the playwrights who gave them all lines to say. Best of all, there was William Shakespeare, who rubbed shoulders with noblemen and royalty as well as with the rowdy crowds at the foot of the stage. He was suspected of involvement in a treasonous rebellion, and his last play literally brought down the house when cannon effects set fire to the famous Globe theater and it burned to the ground. Award-winning collaborators Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema have once again created a feast of words and pictures to celebrate the life of a remarkable person from the pages of history: William Shakespeare, a man for all time.
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