Sacred Places

This revised and updated edition of Inglis' award-winning title features a new epilogue, new pictures and a new introduction by Jay Winter.War memorials, large and small, stand everywhere in the Australian landscape. They embody what Australians have wanted to say about the service and death of their compatriots in overseas wars, and express pride, grief, perceptions of God, empire and nation. The story of their making is composed of both harmony and conflict. Ken Inglis argues that they are the shrines of a civil religion. After the slaughter of World War I, Australians embarked on a remarkable program of war memorial construction. These memorials, large and small, stand everywhere in the Australian landscape, becoming the holy sites of a new civil and nationalist religion-the cult of Anzac.In this moving and beautifully written book, Ken Inglis traces the development of the Anzac cult, as well as looking at those who rejected it. ""Sacred Places"" also examines a paradox: why, as Australia's wars recede in memory, have these memorials and what they stand for become cherished more than ever?