Best We Forget: The War for White Australia, 1914-18

The preparation for a coming war and ultimately the commitment to that war was driven by White Australia's sense of vulnerability in the Pacific, by various nightmare scenarios in which Australia could be left to fend for itself, unaided by Britain, and by the determination to have racial purity at almost any cost.

When the war came, finally, the strategy was simple enough: by promising total support the Australians hoped to secure Britain's unequivocal support in return, for a White Aust...