The Conscription Conflict and the Great War

The Conscription Conflict and the Great War
ISBN: 9781925495393
Publication Date: 1 March 2017

While the Great War raged, Australians were twice asked to vote on the question of military conscription for overseas service. The recourse to popular referendum on such an issue at such a time was without precedent anywhere in the world. The campaigns precipitated mass mobilisation, bitter argument, a split in the Labor Party, and the fall of a government. The defeat of the proposals was hailed by some as a victory of democracy over militarism, mourned by others as an expression of political disloyalty or a symptom of failed self-government.

But while the memory of the conscription campaigns once loomed large, it has increasingly been overshadowed by a preoccupation with the sacrifice and heroism of Australian soldiers - a preoccupation that has been reinforced during the centennial commemorations.

This volume redresses the balance. Across nine chapters, distinguished scholars consider the origins, unfolding, and consequences of the conscription campaigns, comparing local events with experiences in Britain, the United States, and other countries. A corrective to the 'militarisation' of Australian history, it is also a major new exploration of a unique and defining episode in Australia's past.

About the Authors

Robin Archer is Director of the postgraduate program in Political Sociology at the London School of Economics and Emeritus Fellow in Politics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He is the author of Economic Democracy (Oxford, 1995) and Why Is There No Labor Party in the United States (Princeton, 2008).

Joy Damousi is Professor of History at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of The Labour of Loss: Mourning, Memory and Wartime Bereavement in Australia (Cambridge, 1999), Freud in the Antipodes (UNSW, 2005) and Colonial Voices: A...