The sacralisation of Anzac Day has gone through many iterations since it was first established as a commemorative day.

Initially it was a coming of age story – as if a society is nothing until it sheds blood – conveniently overlooking the huge shedding of blood in the Frontier Wars. It was also a reinforcement of its links with the ‘old country’.

Ironically the link with the old country conveniently ignored the reality of why the Dardanelles campaign was launched – the reality that the British Cabinet wanted to open up the straits to ensure the Russians could export wheat to Britain and pay off the bankers in the UK who had lent to the Russians.

Over the years Anzac Day and its significance has shifted from time to time. Initially it was a commemoration of the fallen then in the 1960s as society started to change Anzac Day’s relevance was sometimes questioned.

Politicians also sought to shift the attention on commemoration. The Australia Remembers campaign was basically about highlighting our World War II experience while the Keating Government sought to place emphasis on Kokoda Trail – a campaign which boosted the numbers of tourists navigating the Trail for a while – but has slipped from popular involvement.

Over recent years there have been many books about Anzac, how it has changed and how it is commemorated.

But perhaps the best and most important in this genre is Challenging Anzac – Stories that Don’t Fit the Legend – edited by Mia Martin Hobbs, Carlyn Holbrook and Jolan Beamont.

In a jointly written introduction – Challenging Anzac Why Now? Mia Martin Hobbs, Joan Beamont and Carolyn Holbrook – begin by citing an Albanese speech. “Australians have gone overseas for us. They have gone because there is so much to fight for. And what we have created as Australians and nurtured over generations, is something we must never take for granted”

The authors imagine the speechwriter, or Albanese himself, yawning as they wrote those words about Anzac – as common as they are banal.

The book recounts how the entire Anzac commemoration industry has evolved and how Anzac was always part myth which described ostensibly historic events in order to embody the values and institutions of Australian society.

From the 1980s the authors say Anzac morphed into a foundational narrative of the nation and the myth of white manhood – embodying Bean’s view of the Australian enlisting as a “bronzed tall fighting man as fine a fighting man as exists.”

But by the 1980s this image was being questioned and Lloyd Robson’s research showed that this 1st AIF picture was wrong.

The 1960s was also the era in which the Alan Seymour play The One Day of the Year challenged the Anzac conventional wisdom.

In a chapter Alistair Thomson explores the myths about the recruits – that they were all resourceful, enduring, and committed to egalitarianism. He also draws attention to the fact that after much debate and concern the AWM Roll of Honour was agreed to be a suitable spot for executed murders, fraudsters, deserters, self-harmers and others on the roll.

John Maynard has an excellent chapter on Diggers in the Australian Aboriginal Progressive association which is now recognised as the first united all-Aboriginal political organisation to form in Australia.

After WWI Dick Johnson and Edward Walker – campaigned against the racism First Nations faced in the military and that First Nations veterans were also largely denied access to the soldier settlement program and those who did get access faced racism.

Nathan Hobby has a chapter on the remarkable Hugo Throssell VC who announced, when guest of honour at his hometown Northam for Peace Day Celebrations, that “the war has made me a Socialist…if we want peace…we must do away with the system of production for profit, and organise our life in common on the lines of production for use and for the well-being of the community as a whole.”

Margaret Hutchiosn and Karen Bird contribute  a chapter on Soldier Suicide based on analysis of First War veterans’ deaths in Queensland.

In the chapter they highlight that in 2024 the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide brought to attention that three current or former personnel take their own lives on average every fortnight. The chapter also explores in detail three First World War soldiers who died by suicide in the aftermath of service.

They write: “The lives and deaths of David Molloy, Thomas Beamont and Victor Wilkins sit outside the dominant narrative of Anzac legend, at odds with both the Anzac warrior myth established during the war and the symbol of the revered and stoic returned soldier that later developed.

There is also a chapter on Tobruk very well worth reading if you are happy to be disabused about everything you ever thought you knew about it

The shameful treatment of military personnel exposed to nuclear tests in South Australia is exposed by Max Billington including the efforts of John Howard to deny the problem.

Silence for decades over sexual violence against women in war  is discussed by Christina Twomey and the refusal of the Cenotaph to allow the Sydney Rape Crisis Collective to lay a wreath in memory of women raped in war.

Continued efforts by the group to raise the issue led to the RSL getting the Coalition Government’s Minister for the ACT to ban the group. ACT RSL President, Alf Clark, said: “their assault on the tradition of Anzac Day is backed by Marxist-Lesbian groups.”

Mia Martin Hobbs provides a chapter on anti-war veterans from Vietnam to the war on terror. Many veterans, including this author for instance, marched in the Vietnam Welcome Home Marches and the Moratorium protests.

Mia Martin Hobbs also has a chapter on crimes cloaked in Anzac – the Australian Special Forces and allegations of atrocities in Afghanistan – and the tragic pitfalls which arise from warrior-hero culture.

Given recent court cases the chapter is now out of date but it is still a comprehensive discussion of the diverse and powerful voices which were loudly defending (and funding) opposition to the atrocity allegations and the perpetrators.

Bianca Baggiarini and Joan Beaumont contribute to a chapter on the Anzac warrior in the age of autonomous warfare and they question whether, if the future of warfare and the core values of courage, mateship, endurance and sacrifice is being challenged, what does it mean for the Anzac tradition.

What sort of medal will some techie sitting in a control booth huge distances from a target will be awarded after he gets out of chair and heads home to play on his home computer?

The final chapter in the book – by Carolyn Holbrook – discusses how ANZAC evolves and why it endures – for now.

She says: “Like religion, Anzac, functioned beyond anything rational, but was no less important for that. To focus on the kernel of historical events, and to ignore the meaning that radiated from that cause, was to misunderstand the Anzac legend altogether.”

This book pierces the veil around Anzac its myths, legends and the way it has been used for diverse reasons and things.

It is also one of the most valuable books yet published on Anzac – the myths, the realities, the way it has been used in politics and education.

Many veterans, like this author of this review, have complicated attitudes to Anzac. They are prompted by the differences between Anzac commemoration and Anzackery. This book will help you understand that difference.

Challenging Anzac edited by Mia Martin Hobbs, Carolyn Holbrook and Joan Beamont is published by New South