The passionate historians of the recently formed Honest History group argue that while war has been important to Australia – mostly for its impact on our citizens and our ideas of nationhood – we urgently need to question the stories we tell ourselves about our history. We must separate myth from reality – and to do that we need to reassess the historical evidence surrounding military myths.

In this lively collection, renowned writers including Paul Daley, Mark McKenna, Peter Stanley, Carolyn Holbrook, Mark Dapin, Carmen Lawrence, Frank Bongiorno and Larissa Behrendt explore not only the militarisation of our history but the alternative narratives swamped under the khakiwash – Indigenous history, frontier conflict, multiculturalism, the myth of egalitarianism, economics and the environment.