Issue Details: First known date: 2023... 2023 ‘So Here Is My True Story’ : Australian Military Memoirs and the Construction of Public Understanding of Australia’s War in Afghanistan
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Australia’s war in Afghanistan has led to the production of a number of military memoirs, published commercially and reaching a diverse readership. These memoirs shape public understandings of the experience of the war and how it was fought. This article analyses a selection of these military memoirs, focusing on how soldier-authors frame their reasons for joining the military and for being deployed to war. The article pays attention to descriptions of combat, mateship, and the enemy, and to the ways in which these books convey the costs of war.' (Publication abstract) 

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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    y separately published work icon Australian Historical Studies vol. 54 no. 1 2023 25906751 2023 periodical issue

    'Until World War II provoked a major rethinking of Australian federalism, the working relationships between the national and State levels of the Australian state evolved as a series of solutions to particular problems facing Australia, such as stopping the spread of influenza and ameliorating war veterans’ poverty. In this issue we publish two articles that continue this theme of ‘intergovernmental relations’. Mark Finnane takes us back to the High Court decision known as ‘Smithers’ (1913) in order to reveal how constitutional lawyers, before and after that case, considered the authority of a State of Australia. Could New South Wales police prevent a criminal from entering from another State? On one view, federation (Sections 92 and 117 of the Australian constitution) had ended or weakened such State power, and yet the federal compact had not given a ‘police power’ (or a police force) to the national government. As Finnane shows, one issue in this debate was the scope of ‘police power’. Among Australian jurists who had been following the development of constitutional law in the United States, ‘police power’ referred to the ‘fundamental responsibilities of State governments to protect the health and welfare of their populations’. Future emergencies are likely to recreate public mandates for States to wield authority so broadly conceived, Finnane concludes.' (Publication summary)

    2023
    pg. 91-108
Last amended 15 Mar 2023 10:49:23
91-108 ‘So Here Is My True Story’ : Australian Military Memoirs and the Construction of Public Understanding of Australia’s War in Afghanistansmall AustLit logo Australian Historical Studies
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