Griffith Review 48: Enduring Legacies

Griffith Review #48

by Julianne Schultz (Editor), Peter Cochrane (Editor)

In the year that marks the centenary of the battle at Gallipoli and the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II, Griffith Review 48: Enduring Legacies switches the focus from the battles to the long shadow of the great wars of the twentieth century.

In Enduring Legacies, eminent Australian and New Zealand historians challenge myths and reveal forgotten truths about the consequences of these wars, and popular writers flesh out the lingering human and social impact of conflict.

Contributors include John Clarke, Clare Wright, Peter Stanley, Greg Lockhardt, Cory Taylor, Paul Ham, Meredith McKinney, Jenny Hocking, Frank Bongiorno and Gerhard Fischer.

Professor Julianne Schultz AM FAHA is the founding editor of Griffith Review, the award-winning literary and public affairs quarterly, produced by Griffith University and Text Publishing. She chairs the Australian Film Television and Radio School, is a member of Australia Council for the Arts Pool of Peers, and was until recently a non-executive director of the boards of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Grattan Institute.

Dr Peter Cochrane FAHA has written extensively about war. His books include the companion volume to the ABC series Australians at War, First World War - The Western Front 1916-1918 and Simpson and the Donkey: The Making of a Legend. He is also the author of the award-winning Colonial Ambition and the novella Governor Bligh and the Short Man.

307 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

JULIANNE SCHULTZ is the founding editor of Griffith REVIEW. She is on the boards of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Grattan Institute. She is the Chair of the Queensland Design Council and the reference group on the National Cultural Policy, deputy chair of the Australian Council of Learned Academies Securing Australia’s Future project and on advisory committees with a focus on education, media and Indigenous issues. Since co-chairing the Creative Australia stream at the 2020 Summit she has been actively involved in cultural policy debates. She has been a judge of the Miles Franklin Award, Myer Foundation Fellowships and Walkley Awards. She is the author of Reviving the Fourth Estate: Democracy, accountability and the media (Cambridge University Press, 1998), Steel City Blues (Penguin, 1985) and the librettos Black River and Going into Shadows.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t intend to add to the ink spilt over this year’s Anzac Centenary, but I just have to share these words from the current Griffith Review, which I bought last week at the History Writers’ Festival held at Readers’ Feast Bookstore. There is much wise and thoughtful writing in this issue, and editors Julianne Schultz and Peter Cochrane deserve congratulations for sourcing diverse perspectives and original thinking about so many different aspects of military history.

Amongst many fine pieces of writing, it was Cory Taylor’s brief memoir, ‘Claiming the Dead’ which arrested my attention with her words about the Cowra cemetery. She relates how, at the time of the Tokyo Olympics, Japanese diplomats negotiated for the gathering together of all Japanese who had died on Australian soil either during their internment or during the Cowra breakout.

To read the rest of my thoughts, please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/04/27/se...

[Monty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reading this because my Facebook, Goodreads and Worlds Best Book Club friend contributed the essay "Dear Mother" to it. She and her fellow contributors are stunning individually and collectively producing a combined work worthy of the subtitle "Enduring Legacies" However essays and short stories are a specialist entity in the print media and as such, are not an area of focus for my interest. A good side trip but not enough to draw me back regularly or for a longer visit.