Challenging Anzac Stories That Don't Fit the Legend

Joan Beaumont is an internationally recognised historian of Australia in the two world wars, the history of prisoners of war, and the memory and heritage of war. Her publications include Gull Force: Australian POWs on Ambon and Hainan, 1941-45; Australia's Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War Survived the Worst Economic Crisis It Has Ever Faced; and the critically acclaimed Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War, joint winner of the 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award (Australian History), and winner of the 2014 NSW Premier's Award (Australian History), the 2014 Queensland Literary Award for History and the Australian Society of Authors' 2015 Asher Award.

Mia Martin Hobbs is an oral historian of war and conflict, with a research focus on the Vietnam War, War on Terror, gender, peace, security and postwar reconciliation. Her first book, Return to Vietnam: An Oral History of American and Australian Veterans' Journeys, won the Oral History Australia Book Award in 2022 and was highly commended for the Memory Studies First Book Award in 2023. She has written widely on anti-war veteran activism, war crimes and the impact of the Anzac revival on Australian veterans' war memory. She is presently an ARC DECRA fellow at Deakin University.

Carolyn Holbrook is a historian at Deakin University. Her latest books are Challenging Anzac: Stories that Don't Fit the Legend, co-edited with Mia Martin Hobbs and Joan Beaumont (2026), Australia Fair? Democracy, Bureaucracy and the Making of Modern Australia, co-authored with James Walter (2026), and Gold Standard? Remembering the Hawke Government, co-edited with Frank Bongiorno and Joshua Black (2026). She is the director of the Australian Policy and History network and the Australian Health and History digital archive.