Originating as the authors doctoral thesis, this book explores how Australians have remembered and commemorated the Australian Imperial Force's involvement in the British campaigns fought in Belgium in 1917 during World War I, focusing on how these battles faded from Australian collective memory and have remained absent from the popular narrative of the war, namely the Anzac legend, despite a resurgence of interest in the country's role in the war over the last few decades. It discusses how Australians have remembered the battles in Messines and third Ypres, now known as Passchendaele, in the writings of correspondent and historian Charles Bean; the Australian War Memorial and its representation of Belgian battlefields in temporary exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney between 1922 and 1935, as well as the tour of Will Longstaff's painting Menin Gate at Midnight; the memory work of unit histories, popular books, and returned service members publications, as well as official and unofficial Australian acts of remembrance in Belgium during the interwar period; commemoration in Australia from the beginning of World War II and to the end of the 1980s; and developments in Australia and Belgium from 1988 to 2014. Distributed in the US by IPG (Independent Publishers Group). Annotation 2022 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
