Sacred Places

War Memorials in the Australian Landscape

Third Edition

K. S. Inglis

New introduction by Jay Winter

Distinguished historian Ken Inglis argues that Australian war memorials are the shrines of a civil religion.

Awards

The Age Book of the Year 1999
The Age Book of the Year Non-Fiction Prize 1999
NSW Premier's Literary Awards, History Prize 1999
FAW Literature Award 1998
Ernest Scott History Prize 1999
Centre for Australian Cultural Studies Award, Individual Prize 1999

Opinion

'. . . I can think of no single work more important than Sacred Places . . . I would nominate The Dead, a section of Chapter 4, as one of the best pieces of historical writing in our literature.' Professor Paul Bourke, Historical Studies, ANU

'Sacred Places is the Australian history I have always longed to read . . . a cultural history rich in humour and insight about the reverence at the heart of a very irreverent country.' Jill Ker Conway, author of The Road from Coorain

About this Title

'this thorough, scholarly, accessible and altogether handsome book'
Sir William Deane

'a major contribution to the emotional history of Australia'
Peter Cochrane in Eureka Street

Sacred Places is the Australian history I have always longed to read . . . a cultural history rich in humour and insight about the reverence at the heart of a very irreverent country.
Jill Ker Conway, author The Road from Coorain

After the slaughter of the First World War, Australians embarked on a remarkable programme of war memorial construction. These memorials, large and small, stand everywhere in the Australian landscape. They embody what Australians have wanted to say about the service and death of their compatriots in overseas wars. They express pride, grief, and perceptions of God, empire and nation, becoming the holy sites of a new civil and nationalist religion--the cult of Anzac.

In this moving and beautifully written book, Ken Inglis traces the development of the Anzac cult, as well as looking at those who rejected it. Sacred Places also examines a paradox: why, as Australia's wars recede in memory, have these memorials and what they stand for become more cherished than ever?

Winner of :
* The Age Book of the Year, 1999
* NSW Premier's History Awards, Australian History Prize, 1999
* Ernest Scott Prize, 1999
* Centre for Australian Cultural Studies Award, 1999
* Fellowship of Australian Writers (Vic.) Literature Award, 1998

Table of Contents

Introduction: Holy Ground
1 Colonial Monuments
Memorials ancient and modern
A privilege for posterity
Civil conflicts
Statues
No shrine
2 Soldiers of the Queen
Distant graves
For the Empire
The makers
Statues
Ceremonies
Remembering and forgetting
Missing monuments
The Commonwealth landscape
3 The Great War
ANZAC
The dead
The bereaved
The monument as recruiter
Division
4 The War Memorial
The right way
Raising the money
Choosing the site
The sacred and the useful
Experts and artisians
Forms
'THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE'
"LEST WE FORGET'
5 Anzac Days
Red letter days
Ceremonies
Messages
Dissenters
The post-war landscape
Uses and abuses
6 In Foreign Fields
Graves
Memorials
Pilgrims
7 Capital Monuments
Slow movements
Tasmania
Western Australia
Queensland
South Australia
New South Wales
Victoria
Dawn
Canberra
8 From World War II to Vietnam
'Never such innocence again'
The triumph of utility
The persistence of monuments
Names and inscriptions
Women
Prisoners of war
Aborigines
Overseas
Korea and Vietnam
State updates
The Australian War Memorial
A sacred way
9 Australia Remembers
Operation Restoration
Ceremonies old and new
Sacred sties
Aboriginal presences and absences
The Unknown Australian Soldier
Civil religion
Meanings
Multiculture
'All graves are one'

Sources
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Notes
Index

About the Author

Ken Inglis is one of Australia's most esteemed historians. He has been Professor of History at the Australian National University and the University of Papua New Guinea and Vice-Chancellor of the latter. He was a general editor of Australians: A Historical Library (11 vols) and chairman of the editorial board of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (MUP), and continues to be a vigorous contributor to public debate. His books include Australian Colonists, This is the ABC and most recently Anzac Remembered and Observing Australia 1959-1999.