Links

Scott Hamilton's thoughts about Anzac on his "Reading the Maps" blog. He has several posts on this topic which he summarises here 

There is an excellent Marxist analysis by Dougal McNeill here 

And another excellent Marxist piece with a lot of good historical facts by James Robb here

Richard Jackson is a professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, Otago University, and has a very interesting blog. There are some very good posts on pacifism and Anzac day. There is also a really good post on memorial monuments in Australia here

Alison McCulloch has a really useful article on the Gate Pa commemoration and related issues here

Ann Russell has a fascinating analysis of the recent resurgence of Anzac day, and how this compares to the 70s here

Philip Ferguson has a very useful summary review of Stevan Eldred-Grigg's book The Great Wrong War: NZ society and WW1 here . There's an interesting discussion at the end of the blog too. In the comments below are some links to other posts by Ferguson, including a very eye opening piece about Samoa.

There's a lively and intelligent discussion going on in the UK at the moment about the centenary commemorations. David Cameron is pumping 50 million pounds into devout and patriotic activities, but there is well organised critical campaign called "No Glory". The website has lots of interesting articles and information. 

There is an Australian site called "Honest History" which has a lot of Anzac related articles and opinion pieces. A broad range of perspectives and approaches, with an Australian focus.  

This essay is a very good account of the trauma, brutalisation and psychological afflictions caused by WW1. The points are backed up with references.

Honest history has a review of two exhibitions in Australia relating to WW1: here  

Anzac and class struggle - Australian article about how to counter Anzac myths

 
I was really pleased to receive an email from Jared Davidson recently, he is the author of 

Fighting War: Anarchists, Wobblies and the New Zealand State 1905 - 1925 

....which I referred to in an earlier post. There's a fascinating history here which tells the stories of socialists, anarchists, anti - miltarists and labour activists who were opposed to the war. They might have been a minority group, but the more I read about them the more significant I think they are. He has written two other valuable articles which cast more light on this history:

Socialist cross of honour: Makings of a working class counter culture 

and

Remains to be seen: Tracing Joe Hill's Ashes in New Zealand 

I'm also going to highlight a specific page on the 'Honest History' website which has a list of links to articles and information about the Armenian Genocide. There is a lot more of interest contained in the Honest History site, it is a really valuable resource.

Honest History list - Armenian Genocide 

Finally (for now) a piece by Dougal McNeill's impressions and reflections on Anzac day inspired by his experience of the opening of the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington. I think his comments on Anzac as a kind of hyper-real spectacle are spot on, and I suspect there is more to be said on this topic. 

Anzac: they'll remember it for us wholesale


Edit 24/04/15 here's a link to 'Redline', a Marxist blog with a series of good pieces relating to WW1 history and Anzac day

Redline blog 

Bryce Edwards' Political Roundup: Anzac Fatigue and Dissent' has a fairly large list of links to various kinds of dissenting opinion. (NZ Herald online, 24/04/15)

Bryce Edwards 

I got another email from some like minded people in the Aoteroa Worker Solidarity Movement, here is a link to their blog 

Remembering Gallipoli  

This is a really useful survey of the 'history wars' around Anzac in Australia. When I was reading this I thought to myself somebody needs to do something similar for our NZ version

The Past is not sacred  

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