A Transnational Perspective on the Anzac Resurgence

In this chapter, I offer an alternative to the militarisation thesis by locating the Anzac revival in an intricate transnational framework, which emphasises the multiple origins and effects of national myths. This perspective includes features like the “new” Australian nationalism of the 1980s; the “ordering effects” of Anzac tourism; academic, diplomatic and political exchanges; a dialectical relationship between how Anzac has shaped prime ministers’ performances and how prime ministers have shaped Anzac; a “transnational turn” in visual texts that has decentred national myths about Gallipoli; new connections with history via digital technologies; the growing popularity of family history and genealogical tourism; the worldwide “memory boom”; a proliferation of academic and popular books, films and TV series on World War I and World War II; the international trend of seeing soldiers-as-victims; and the growth of “history from below”, which critiques Enlightenment, Eurocentric and Western ideals of “the great and the good”.