Official history is a misunderstood genre of historical writing, which attracts much negative comment from (non-official) historians but about which very little detail is actually known. This book examines the development of official history programs in Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand over the course of the twentieth century, looking at the ways in which they developed and the contributions each made to their respective national historiography. The second part of the work develops some themes from the first and takes the official histories of the Second World War as case...

Today the mere mention of Vietnam conjures up images of protest in American streets and tensions so strong they divided a country. Yet the United States did not fight alone. Comparatively little is known about Australia's experience-its motives for entering the conflict, national support for Australia's role there, and how that nation dealt with the aftermath of war. Here, Jeff Doyle, Jeffrey Grey, and Peter Pierce chronicle Australia's complicated involvement in Vietnam.
Australia's decision to participate in the conflict was part of a collective Western effort to stop Communist...

Sir Horace Robertson was one of Australia's most colorful and controversial generals. His career spanned forty years and two world wars, as well as a lengthy period in both Japan and Korea between 1946 and 1951. Australian Brass not only charts the life and career of "Red Robbie," it uses his career as a vehicle to trace the development of the Australian regular army and the professional officer corps. It is also the first account of the occupation of Japan from a senior officer's perspective, as Robertson was Commander-in-Chief of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force after the Second...

Sir Horace Robertson was one of Australia's most colorful and controversial generals. His career spanned forty years and two world wars, as well as a lengthy period in both Japan and Korea between 1946 and 1951. Australian Brass not only charts the life and career of "Red Robbie," it uses his career as a vehicle to trace the development of the Australian regular army and the professional officer corps. It is also the first account of the occupation of Japan from a senior officer's perspective, as Robertson was Commander-in-Chief of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force after the Second...