'This is an intriguing and enjoyable anthology. Robin Gerster and Peter Pierce, the editors of On the Warpath, have chosen their extracts on the basis of the “significant things they suggest about the war experience as a cultural as well as military challenge”, to the extent that the battlefield barely figures. An excellent introduction discusses the five broad themes covered in the book: colonial wars, the First and Second World Wars, wars in Asia and the Pacific, and battlefield tourism. From the writings in the first three sections it emerges that many Australians viewed war as an opportunity to see the world; they eagerly anticipated the oddities of South Africa, Egypt, Israel or France, but,…' (Introduction)
