The Anzac book: A reply to Denis Winter

Abstract

In the April 1990 number of this journal Denis Winter fired off a barrage against my 1985 article in 'Historical studies' which dealt with the place of 'The Anzac book' in the making of the Anzac legend and c.E.W. Bean's role as editor and image-maker. I don't know if the barrage was intended to obliterate the article or leave its author quaking in his dug-out, but in either case it failed. The important point about Winter's note is that, notwithstanding the title, it is not a re-appraisal of my article. It is, in fact, a useful supplement, perhaps an extension, or even an elaboration, which uses material I chose to exclude because I did not consider it central to the points I wanted to make about 'The Anzac book' and Bean's role. Winter does not challenge the substance of the argument I advanced in 1985. To use a theological parallel, he is agitated about 'matters indifferent'. The general drift of his note actually confirms the view I put forward that Bean deliberately falsified the Gallipoli experience although Winter would have us believe that in so doing he was probably a knowing, willing instrument of the British propaganda machine. The central element in Winter's critique concerns the timing of the decision to produce a celebratory magazine.