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‘This careful, detailed account…establishes that an important motive for our participation [in World War I] was the preservation of white Australia from Asian contamination.’
Age
‘Unsettling and revelatory…The primary purpose of Cochrane’s fascinating book is to alert readers to the racial dimension of Australia’s participation in World War I. It also addresses the key historiographical question of what is remembered and what is forgotten, and why…He has succeeded admirably in this illuminating book…Illuminating.’
Australian
‘Revelatory history at its best. Every Australian politician, journalist and high-school student should read this fluent and compelling story that exhumes an unpalatable truth about our motives for going to war in 1914, and reflect on what it tells us about race fear and the value of history.’
Stephen FitzGerald, chairman of China Matters, former diplomat and author of Comrade Ambassador
‘Cochrane sweeps away the myth to expose the uncomfortable racial truth at the heart of Anzac.’
Paul Daley, award-winning journalist and author of Beersheba
‘Unsettling—it challenges so powerfully the traditional telling of the Anzac story.’
Peter Stanley, professor of history at UNSW Canberra and author of Lost Boys of Anzac
‘A great read, and an important contribution to making forgotten history more accessible—the kind of book that will seep into the national consciousness over time.’
Tim Watts, federal MP and co-author of Two Futures
‘The words “White Australia” and “Anzac" rarely keep company. In this brilliant and provocative reassessment, Peter Cochrane strips away the layers of myth to show that for Australian leaders World War I was a white racial struggle, with fear of Japan and distrust of Britain, as much as loathing of Germany, at its heart. After Best We Forget, Australia’s war should never look quite the same again.’
Frank Bongiorno, professor of history at the ANU and author of The Eighties
Age
‘Unsettling and revelatory…The primary purpose of Cochrane’s fascinating book is to alert readers to the racial dimension of Australia’s participation in World War I. It also addresses the key historiographical question of what is remembered and what is forgotten, and why…He has succeeded admirably in this illuminating book…Illuminating.’
Australian
‘Revelatory history at its best. Every Australian politician, journalist and high-school student should read this fluent and compelling story that exhumes an unpalatable truth about our motives for going to war in 1914, and reflect on what it tells us about race fear and the value of history.’
Stephen FitzGerald, chairman of China Matters, former diplomat and author of Comrade Ambassador
‘Cochrane sweeps away the myth to expose the uncomfortable racial truth at the heart of Anzac.’
Paul Daley, award-winning journalist and author of Beersheba
‘Unsettling—it challenges so powerfully the traditional telling of the Anzac story.’
Peter Stanley, professor of history at UNSW Canberra and author of Lost Boys of Anzac
‘A great read, and an important contribution to making forgotten history more accessible—the kind of book that will seep into the national consciousness over time.’
Tim Watts, federal MP and co-author of Two Futures
‘The words “White Australia” and “Anzac" rarely keep company. In this brilliant and provocative reassessment, Peter Cochrane strips away the layers of myth to show that for Australian leaders World War I was a white racial struggle, with fear of Japan and distrust of Britain, as much as loathing of Germany, at its heart. After Best We Forget, Australia’s war should never look quite the same again.’
Frank Bongiorno, professor of history at the ANU and author of The Eighties
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