The war memorials and holy sites of the new civil and nationalist religion of the Australian and New Zealand Air Corps (Anzac) are evaluated in this beautifully produced book. After the terrors of the First World War, Australians embarked on a remarkable program of war memorial construction creating large and small mementos that adorn the Australian landscape to this day-pieces that express pride and grief in the perceptions of God, empire, and nation. The author traces the development of the cult of Anzac and its monuments, covering their social origins and modern implications of national spirit and patriotism. This edition includes a new forward to mark the 90th anniversary of the Anzac's landing at Gallipoli.

This magnificently produced and beautifully written book is the product of a lifetime's thought and research by master social historian Ken Inglis. After Gallipoli, on a scale unknown anywhere else in the world, Australia embarked on a massive program of war memorial construction. The memorials became the holy sites of a new civil and nationalist religion - the cult of Anzac. In this comprehensive and fascinating analysis, Inglis traces the development of the cult and its social origins and implications, as well as looking at those who rejected it.

Review
"'Sacred Places is the Australian history I have always longed to read... a cultural history rich in humour and insight about the reverence at the heart of a very irreverent country.' (Jill Ker Conway, author of The Road from Coorain)"