Essay Australian Imperial Force and its Leadership Essay – Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task :

Task:

Please respond to ONE of the following essay prompts.

1. How should we regard those who argued against conscription in the First World War? What arguments did they use? Were they traitors, patriots, or something else? Answer with reference to examples of anti-conscription meetings from one or more local newspapers.

2. To what extent did the Australian Imperial Force and its leadership play a leading role in securing victory on the Western Front in 1918?

3. What were the main features of the Anzac tradition that emerged from the experience of Gallipoli? What purposes did Anzac Day serve during the war and into the 1920s? (Use TROVE to examine what major metropolitan newspapers like the Melbourne Argus or Sydney Morning Herald had to say on Anzac Day in their editorials in this period)

4. What sort of history did Charles Bean set out to write about Australians in the Great War? What criticisms have been made of his work? Was Bean a ‘myth-maker’?

5. How has Australia’s First World War been presented to children through literature or school texts/kits? How have these forms of presenting the war to children changed over time? Are they simply perpetuating myths?

6. Analyse one or more diaries or collections of letters from an Australian soldier or nurse of the First or Second World War. How significant was letter-writing and diary keeping to soldiers and their families? What dangers and limitations should historians be aware of when using such sources? Answer with reference to examples drawn from a published or unpublished collection.

7. What were the aims of the major peace organisations in Australia during the Great War, and how did they seek to achieve them? Did their activities have any impact at all?

8. The Greek Campaign in 1941 ended in defeat for the ANZAC forces within a month. Why were the Australian forces defeated so quickly by the German armed forces? Was the decision to commit the Australian and other imperial forces to this campaign justified?

9. Was the loss of Singapore in February 1942 a betrayal of Australia’s faith in the British Empire to defend them?

10. Was Australia in imminent danger of invasion in early 1942? Were Australians justified in how they felt? Examine editorials and reporting in major Australian newspapers in February- March 1942.

11. How did expectations of women’s participation in the war effort change over the course of the Second World War? Examine editorials in the Australian Women’s Weekly (available through Trove), especially between 1939 and 1943.

12. Why were the memoirs of former prisoners of the Japanese so popular in Australia in the two decades after the Second World War? Use newspaper and magazine reviews of books such as Behind Bamboo, The Naked Island and White Coolies to provide evidence for your argument.