Australian civilians worked for decades supporting the survivors and orphans of the Armenian Genocide.24 April 1915 marks the beginning of two great epics of the First World War. It was the day the allied invasion forces set out for Gallipoli; and it marked the beginning of what became the Genocide of the Ottoman Empire's Armenians. For the first time, this book tells the powerful, and until now neglected, story of how Australian humanitarians helped people they had barely heard of...

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 Wa...

The Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people — wreaking a greater human toll than any other fire in Australia’s history. Ten of those victims 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 felt like a battlefield.Prize-winning historian Peter Stanley tells the dramatic stories of this small piece of country on that one terrifying evening — of epic f...

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 t...

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 remembranc...

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 Austra...

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 dru...

What does Australia' s military history reveal about us? In Beyond the Broken Years – fifty years after Bill Gammage' s acclaimed The Broken Years was published – provocative military historian Peter Stanley argues why it' s vital for Australians to understand how our military past has been created, by whom, how and with what consequences. Stanley explores military history and the storytellers – from historians Charles Bean, Henry Reynolds, Joan Beaumont and David Horner to ' ' Storians' P...

What does Australia’s military history reveal about us?In Beyond The Broken Years – fifty years after The Broken Years, Bill Gammage’s classic on World War One soldiers, was published – provocative military historian Peter Stanley argues why it’s vital for Australians to understand how our military past has been created. By whom, how and with what consequences.Stanley explores military history and the storytellers – from historians Charles...

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 Lemn...

Australians remember the dead of 25 April 1915 on Anzac Day every year. But does anyone 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: the first to volunteer, the first to go into action, and the first of the 60,000 A...

After four decades from the 1982 war between Britain and Argentina over possession of the Falklands/Malvinas islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, this book allows for a new and rounded reading of the causes, course and consequences of the war.It provides a comprehensive overview of the Falkland/Malvinas War by integrating the military history of the conflict into the diplomatic, political, social and cultural aspects of the war. Including a substantial body of advocacy, chronicle, ...