Bigger Than Gallipoli by Liz Reed

This book is about how Australia ÒremembersÓ the Second World War, focusing on the year-long commemorative program Australia Remembers 1934-1995, which took place all over Australia from small towns and local organizations to official national events. For many of the Second World War generation this was the recognition that they had been yearning for. This book analyzes how the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war represented ÒremembranceÓ visually, in text, and in spectacle, and makes some comparisons with similar events in Canada and New Zealand. Its key themes of nostalgia, memory and commemoration are linked to explorations of how Australia as a nation seeks to reconstruct its identity, and the extent to which Australia Remembers contains new ways of representing previously ignored groups such as Australian Indigenous people and women.