Professor Peter Stanley

Associate Head of School (External Engagement) - Professor of History
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
p.stanley@adfa.edu.au
+61 2 626 88902 but email preferred
+61 2 626 88879

LOCATION

Building 29 Room 103

  • ABOUT
  • PUBLICATIONS

p>Prof. Peter Stanley, spent 33 years as a ‘public historian’ – working with the Australian War Memorial (where he was Principal Historian) and at the National Museum of Australia (inaugural head of its Research Centre) before commencing at UNSW Canberra in 2013 as Research Professor. As a public historian Peter worked across the range of responsibilities of museums; in exhibitions, publications, public programs and education as well as in research. Peter is Associate Head of School (External Engagement), with particular responsibility for the School's Visiting Fellows.

Peter has published more than 30 books, mainly in the field of Australian military-social history, though he has also published in British imperial military history (White Mutiny), battlefield research (A Stout Pair of Boots) medical history (For Fear of Pain) and bushfires (Black Saturday at Steels Creek). He has recently focused on the Great War, publishing since 2005 several books dealing with it, including Quinn’s Post, Anzac, Gallipoli, Men of Mont St Quentin, Digger Smith and Australia’s Great War, Lost Boys of Anzac and his most recent books, Die in Battle, Do not Despair, the Indians on Gallipoli, 1915 and his ‘Society’ chapters of Vol. IV of the Oxford Centenary History of Australia and the Great War (both published in 2015). Several recent books also deal with the Great War, including a book on Armenia, Australia and the Great War (co-written with Vick Babkenian) and the National Library’s The Crying Years: Australia's Great War. In 2018 the National Library published his edited collection, Victory on Gallipoli and other What-ifs in Australian History (National Library of Australia, 2018), and he edited a collection of essays in memory of our late colleague Prof. Jeff Grey; Jeff Grey: A Life in History (UNSW Canberra, 2018).

Peter's major current project is 'Terriers in India', a book - the very first - on the experience of the 50,000 British Territorial soldiers who served in India during the Great War. No one  has written on these men in a century. Peter has conducted extensive archival and fieldwork in Britain and India to reveal this episode in the history of the Raj. It will be published by Helion, UK, early in 2019. He is now jointly writing a book on the Falklands/Malvinas war of 1982 (with Prof. Rob McLaughlin of UNSW Canberra) for a Routledge series, and is also working on the first history of the Santal rebellion of 1855 to be published in over 75 years, to be published by Hurst & Co., London.

Peter's 2010 book Bad Characters: Sex, Crime, Murder, Mutiny and the Australian Imperial Force was jointly awarded the 2011 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History. 

Peter is also supervising seven PhD or MA candidates at UNSW and ANU, and continues to examine and mentor candidates for higher degrees and other writers. He retains strong relationships with cultural institutions, recently advising the National Museum of Australia and Melbourne Museum on their Great War exhibitions, and is advising the new Soldiers Memorial Institute Museum, Bendigo, on its exhibitions. Peter works with the Academy Library’s Special Collections staff and is a member of the Academy’s Library Committee.

A recent project in the Centre was to co-convene (with Dr Michael Molkentin) the Summer School for Secondary History Teachers, the first of which will be held in January 2015. In 2016 Peter curated the exhibition mounted in the Academy Library Charles Bean: life and work, marking the centenary of Bean conceiving the idea of a national war memorial.

Peter is well known for his television and radio appearances. In 2005 he co-presented Revealing Gallipoli and has been seen in many documentaries including Monash the Forgotten Anzac, Who Do You Think You Are?, In Their Footsteps, Afterburn, Australia’s Secret Heroes, The War that Changed Us , Paddy's War, Changed Forever, 100 Days to Victory, and others broadcast over the centenary of the Great War.

Peter writes historical fiction as a hobby, with Simpson’s Donkey (a novel for children) appearing in 2011 and The Cunning Man, set in the 1845 Anglo-Sikh war in 2014, with more on the way. 

For his Engagement story please click

Books

Stanley P, 2017, The Crying Years: Australia's Great War, National Library of Australia, Canberra

Connor J; Stockings C, (eds.), 2017, The Shadow Men: The leaders who shaped the Australian Army from the Veldt to Vietnam, 1st, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney

Babkenian V; Stanley P, 2016, Armenia, Australia and the Great War

Stanley P, 2015, Die in Battle, Do not Despair: the Indians on Gallipoli, 1915, War and Military Culture in South Asia, 1757-1947, Helion & Company, Solihull (UK)

Stanley PETER; Connor J; Yule P, 2015, The War at Home: Volume IV, The Centenary History of Australia and the Great War Series, Oxford University Press, Melbourne

Stanley P, 2014, Lost Boys of Anzac, NewSouth, Sydney, https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/lost-boys-of-anzac/

Stanley P, (ed.), 2014, Welch Calypso, Helion & Company, Solihull (UK)

Stanley P, 2013, Black Saturday at Steels Creek, first, Scribe Publications, Melbourne

Stanley P; Stanley P, 2011, Digger Smith and Australia's Great War, Allen & Unwin

Stanley P, 2011, Simpson's Donkey, Allen & Unwin

Stanley P, 2010, Bad Characters, Allen & Unwin

Stanley P, 2009, Commando to Colditz, Allen & Unwin

Stanley P, 2009, Men of Mont St Quentin, Scribe Publications

Stanley P, 2008, Invading Australia: Japan and the battle for Australia, 1942, Penguin Viking

Stanley P, 2005, Quinn`s Post, Anzac, Gallipoli, First, Allen and Unwin, St Leonards, NSW

Stanley P, 2005, Borneo 1942-1945: Australia in the Pacific War, First, Dept. of Veterans'Affairs, Canberra

Stanley P, 2004, Whyalla at War, Original, East Street Publications, Adelaide

Stanley P, 2003, For Fear of Pain: British Surgery 1790-1850, Original, Rodopi Press, Amsterdam

Stanley P; Stanley P, 2003, For Fear of Pain: British Surgery 1790-1850, Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam

Stanley P; Johnston M, 2002, Alamein: the Australian Story, Oxford University Press

Stanley P, 1998, White Mutiny British Military Culture in India, 1825-1875, C. HURST & CO. PUBLISHERS

Stanley P, 1997, Tarakan An Australian Tragedy, Allen & Unwin

Stanley PA, 1993, White Mutiny The Bengal Europeans, 1825-75, a Study in Military Social History

Stanley P; Stanley P, 1991, Rosemary & Wattle, Australian War Memorial

Stanley P; Stanley P, 1986, Air Battle Europe 1939-1945, Time-Life Australia

Stanley P; Stanley P, 1986, The Remote Garrison: the British Army in Australia, Kangaroo Press, Dural

Stanley P; Stanley P; McKernan M, 1986, Anzac Day Seventy Years On, William Collins

Stanley P, (ed.), 1985, But Little Glory: the NSW Contingent to the Sudan, 1885, Military Historical Society of Australia, Canberra

Stanley P, 1985, Bomber Command, Hodder & Stoughton

Stanley P; Stanley P, 1985, A Guide to the Australian War Memorial, John Ferguson

Stanley P; McKernan M, 1984, Australians at War 1885-1972, William Collins

Stanley P; Memorial AW, 1983, What did you do in the war, Daddy? a visual history of propaganda posters, Oxford Univ Pr

Book Chapters

Stanley P, 2018, 'Marigolds and Poppies: Commemorating 'Indian' War Dead', in Commemorating Race and Empire in the First World War Centenary, pp. 39 - 49

Stanley P, 2018, 'Terriers in India: a preliminary report', in The Indian Army in the First World War, Helion & Co., Solihul, UK, pp. 270 - 280

Stanley P, 2018, 'Temporary Sahibs: Terriers in India in 1917', in Abbenhuis M (ed.), The Myriad Legacies of 1917, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 151 - 168

Stanley P, 2018, ''Numerous debts'', in Stanley P (ed.), Jeff Grey: A Life in History, pp. 45 - 59

Stockings C; Connor J, 2017, ''The Enigma: General Sir Cyril Bingham Brudenell White'', in The Shadow Men: The leaders who shaped the Australian Army from the Veldt to Vietnam, NewSouth, Sydney, pp. 59 - 80

Stanley P, 2017, ''Australian heroes: Some military mates are more equal than others'', in Stephens D; Broinowski A (ed.), The Honest History Book, NewSouth, Sydney, pp. 196 - 210

Stanley P, 2017, 'Between Acceptance and Refusal - Soldiers' Attitudes Towards War (Australia)', in 1914-18 Online, 1914-18 Online, Berlin, https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/between_acceptance_and_refusal_-_soldiers_attitudes_towards_war_australia

Stanley P, 2017, 'introduction', in Charles Bean: Man, Myth, Legacy, NewSouth, Sydney, pp. 1 - 6

Stanley P, 2017, 'An adequate memorial', in Charles Bean: man, Myth, Legacy, NewSouth, Sydney, pp. 135 - 144

Stanley P; Nichols R, 2016, 'Naming the Day: ANZAC or Anzac?', in Anzac Day: Then and Now, NewSouth, Sydney, pp. 69 - 89

Stanley P, 2016, 'The finest type of coloured men: Indians' and new Zealanders' encounters on Gallipoli', in Experience of a Lifetime: People, Personalities and Leaders of the First World War, Massey University Press, Auckland, pp. 120 - 137

Stanley P, 2016, ''Diminishing city: Hope, Despair and Whyalla'', in Griffith Review, Griffith University, pp. 63 - 74

Hastings ANTHONY; Stanley P, 2015, ''To Capture Tarakan': Was Operation Oboe I Unnecessary?', in Dean PJ (ed.), Australia 1944-45: Victory in the Pacific, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, pp. 278 - 297

Stanley P, 2015, ''Gallipoli'', in Singh-Sohal J (ed.), The Sikh Chronicles, edn. 1st, WWI Sikh Memorial Fund, Birmingham, UK, pp. 59 - 61

Stanley P, 2014, 'The Indian Army', in Horner D (ed.), Gallipoli 100, Faircount Media Group, pp. 191 - 193

Stanley P, 2014, 'Life at Gallipoli', in Gallipoli 100, Faircount Media Group, pp. 116 - 119

Stanley P, 2014, 'Holding Quinn's Post', in Horner D (ed.), Gallipoli 100, pp. 126 - 127

Stanley P, 2013, ''Gone to Navy': Defending Australia', in Hetherington M (ed.), Glorious Days: Australia 1913, edn. 1st, National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, pp. 37 - 45

Stanley P, 2013, ''War without end'', in Australia's History Now, edn. first, NewSouth, Sydney, pp. 90 - 106

Stanley P, 2013, 'British soldiers in colonial Australia', in Stockings C; Connor J (ed.), Before the ANZAC Dawn, edn. first, NewSouth, Sydney, pp. 39 - 61

Stanley P; Bashford A; Macintyre S, 2013, ''The Great War and its Aftermath'', in Bashford A; Macintyre S (ed.), The Cambridge History of Australia,, edn. first, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, pp. 39 - 63

Stanley P, 2013, ''Gone to Navy'', in Hetherington M (ed.), Glorious Days: Australia 1913, National Museum of Australia, pp. 36 - 45

Mauri JL; Manoharan S; Segal Z; Taniguchi Y; Chang RS; Frank K; Mastroianni C; Balandin S; Lee JS; Gordon-Ross A, 2013, 'Foreword', in UBICOMM 2013 - 7th International Conference on Mobile Ubiquitous Computing, Systems, Services and Technologies

Stanley P, 2013, 'British soldiers in in colonial Australia', in Stockings C; Connor J (ed.), Before the Anzac Dawn: a Military History of Australia to 1915, pp. 39 - 61

Stanley P; Garton S, 2013, 'The Great War and its aftermath, 1914-22', in The Cambridge History of Australia, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, pp. 39 - 63

Stanley P, 2012, ''Monumental mistake: Is war the most important thing in Australian history?'', in Anzac's Dirty Dozen

Stanley P, 2012, ''Revealing Revealing Gallipoli'', in Making Film and Television Histories in Australia and New Zealand

Stanley P, 2012, ''The part we played in this show': Australians and El Alamein', in Edwards J (ed.), El Alamein and the Struggle for North Africa, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, pp. 55 - 72

Stanley P, 2011, 'Monumental mistake: is war the most important thing in Australian history?', in Anzac's Dirty Dozen: 12 Myths of Australian military history, NewSouth, Sydney, pp. 260 - 286

Stanley P, 2010, 'Dramatic myth, dull truth: invasion by japan in 1942', in Stockings C (ed.), Zombie Myths of Australian Military History, NewSouth

Stanley P; Das S, 2010, ''He was black, he was a White man, and a dinkum Aussie': race and empire in revisiting the Anzac legend', in Das S (ed.), Race and Empire in the Great War, Oxford University Press

Gare D; Ritter D; Stanley P, 2008, 'The Gallipoli campaign: history and memory, myth and legend', in Making Australian History: Perspectives on the past since 1788, Thomson, Sydney, pp. 311 - 316

Stanley P, 2006, 'Imperial Military History', in Palgrave Advances in Modern Military History

Stanley P; Shaw L; Wilkins W, 2006, 'The dutch are a mob of bastards: Dutch-Australian relations in the Pacific War', in Dutch connections : 400 years of Australian-Dutch maritime links 1606-2006, pp. 110 - 125

Stanley P, 2003, 'Gavin Long and History at the Australian War Memorial', in Grey J (ed.), The Last Word?, edn. Original, Praeger Publishers, Westport, Conn; London, pp. 105 - 116

Stanley P, 2003, 'Army Temperance Association', in Blocker Jr JS; Fahey DM; Tyrrell IR (ed.), Alcohol & Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia, edn. First, ABC-CLIO, California, USA, pp. 55 - 56

Stanley P, 2003, 'The men who did the fighting are now all busy writing: Australian Post-Mortems on Defeat in Malaya and Singapore, 1942-45', in Sixty Years On: the fall of Singapore Revisited, Eastern Universities Press, Singapore, pp. 290 - 312

Stanley P, 1995, 'Anzac and Army: reflections on Army and Society in Australia, 1895-1995', in Armies and nation building - past experience - future prospects, Australian Army

Journal articles

Stanley P, 2016, 'Memories made real: Material culture and arthur ransome', ReCollections, vol. 11

Stanley P, 2015, 'Leaving for the Dardanelles 1915', The National Library of Australia Magazine, vol. 7, pp. 18 - 19

Stanley P, 2015, ''A hundred in a million'', Griffith Review, pp. 262 - 269

Stanley P, 2015, ''Honest History: possible, desirable, necessary?'', Tasmanian Historical Research Association: Papers and Proceedings, vol. 62, pp. 2 - 18

Stanley P, 2015, ''Indians on Gallipoli, 1915'', The Gallipolian, pp. 48 - 56

Stanley P, 2015, ''India'', History Australia, vol. 12, pp. 43 - 48

Stanley P, 2015, ''Off to the Great War: Woolloomooloo, 1915'', The national Library of Australia Magazine, vol. 7, pp. 18 - 19

Stanley P, 2015, ''Like a Gippsland Bushfire'', The National Library of Australia Magazine', vol. 7, pp. 18 - 19

Stanley P, 2015, 'An Entente Most Remarkable: Indians and Gallipoli, 1915', Stand-to: the Journal of teh Western Front Association, pp. 9 - 12

Stanley P, 2015, 'Gallipoli', The Sikh Chronicles: the Official Journal of the WWI Sikh memorial Fund, pp. 59 - 61

Stanley P, 2015, 'Fading colours: Britain's regimental museums', reCollections, vol. 10, http://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/volume_10_number_2/travellers_notes/fading_colours

Stanley P, 2014, 'Sulabh international museum of toilets, New Delhi', ReCollections, vol. 9

Stanley P, 2014, 'Wesley College Athletic Team 1914', The National Library of Australia magazine, pp. 18 - 19

Stanley P, 2014, ''My heart and hands full': how did Civil war surgeons cope?', Surgeon's Call, pp. 3 - 6

Stanley P, 2014, 'Unpleasant recollections: Surgeons' Memories of the Civil War'', Surgeon's Call, vol. 19, pp. 3 - 5

Stanley P, 2014, 'Indians, Anzacs and Gallipoli, 1915', Journal of Defence Studies, vol. 8, pp. 1 - 8

Stanley P, 2014, 'Not Only, but Also: A Short History of Honest History', History Australia, vol. 11, pp. 219 - 224, 10.1080/14490854.2014.11668508

Stanley P, 2013, ''Banned'', reCollections: a Journal of Museums and Collections, vol. Vol. 8, pp. N/A - N/A, http://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/volume_8_number_1/exhibition_reviews

Stanley P, 2010, 'Working machines and 'Broken Britain': Goodwood Revival and the historical politics of re-enactment', ReCollections (Canberra), vol. 5, http://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/vol_5_no_1/notes_and_comments/working_machines_and_broken_britain

Stanley P, 2007, 'In the Street of the Historians: Practising History at the Australian War Memorial', Dialogue: Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, vol. 26, pp. 30 - 38

Stanley P, 2007, 'What is the Battle for Australia?', Australian Army Journal, vol. IV, pp. 17 - 34

Stanley P, 2005, 'The most critical position', Wartime, vol. 29, pp. 12 - 15

Stanley P, 2005, 'Australia and Denmark in War', Wartime, vol. 30, pp. 50 - 51

Stanley P, 2005, 'Sandakan: The Greatest Atrocity', Wartime, vol. 30, pp. 52 - 53

Stanley P, 2005, 'Arguing about Gallipoli', Wartime, vol. 30, pp. 11 - 11

Stanley P, 2005, 'Drip Rifle', Wartime, vol. 30, pp. 3 - 3

Stanley P, 2005, 'Winter on Gallipoli', Wartime, vol. 30, pp. 43 - 43

Stanley P, 2005, 'Soldier of Utmost Courage: `Diver` Derrick', Wartime, vol. 31, pp. 12 - 16

Stanley P, 2005, 'Justifying the Bombs', Wartime, vol. 31, pp. 24 - 25

Stanley P, 2005, 'Weary Dunlop: Emblematic Prisoner', Wartime, vol. 32, pp. 12 - 13

Stanley P, 2005, 'A Shared Experience', Wartime, vol. 32, pp. 52 - 55

Stanley P, 1996, 'Dear Comrades: Barrack-room culture and teh White Mutiny of 1859-60', Indo-British Review, vol. XXI, pp. 165 - 175

Stanley P, 1994, 'Sniffing the ground: Australians and Borneo - 1945, 1994', Journal of the Australian War Memorial

Stanley P, 1993, 'Happy birthday, HRS: a decade of the Australian War memorial's Historical Research Section', Public History Review, pp. 54 - 65

Stanley P, 1993, 'The Green Hole: exploring our neglect of the New Guineas campaigns of 1943-44', Sabretache, pp. 3 - 11

Stanley P, 1991, 'Heritage of Strangers: the Australian Army's British Legacy', Australian Defence Force Journal: journal of the Australian profession of arms, pp. 21 - 26

Stanley P, 1988, 'A horn to put your powder in: interpreting artefacts of British soldiers in colonial Australia', Journal of the Australian War Memorial, pp. 13 - 29

Conference Papers

Stanley P, (ed.), 2009, 'Telling Lies for Turkey: The Ataturk quotation and the mischief it has caused', in Telling Lies for Turkey: The Ataturk quotation and the mischief it has caused, Second International Gallipoli Symposium, ANU, presented at Second International Gallipoli Symposium, ANU, 15 - 16 April 2009

Curatorial Outputs

Stanley P; Conde AM; Carroll A, 2016, Exhibited at: , UNSW ADFA Library, 29 July - 28 October 2016, Publication: Charles Bean: Life and Work, UNSW ADFA Library

Other

Westermann W, Preface to Soldiers and Gentlemen: Australian battalion Commanders in the Great War, 1914-1918

Stanley P, ‘Headphones, genocide and Fanta: reflections on the Çanakkale Gallipoli conference’

Stanley P, Anzacs and Indians on Gallipoli website

Stanley P, Dawn, Emily Bay, Norfolk Island, Anzac Day

Stanley P, Who are the liars? Response to Colebatch

Creative Written Works

Stanley P, 2014, The Cunning Man, Publication: Bobby Graham Publishing Pty Ltd, Manuka, ACT, publication category: Creative Written Works, http://www.bgpublishers.com.au/2015/?product=the-cunning-man

Stanley P, 2014, The Cunning Man, Publication: Bobby Graham Publishing, Canberra, publication category: Creative Written Works

Stanley P, 2010, Simpson's Donkey, Publication: Murdoch Books, Sydney, publication category: Creative Written Works

Recorded / Rendered Creative Works

Stanley P; Wright C, 2015, The War That Changed US, Recorded / Rendered Creative Works

Stanley P; Robinson A, 2015, Tony Robinson's Tour of Duty, Recorded / Rendered Creative Works

Stanley P; Berzins H, 2015, Lest We Forget, UTS, Editor(s): Berzins H, Recorded / Rendered Creative Works

Stanley P, 2015, Australia the Story of Us, Recorded / Rendered Creative Works

Stanley P, 2015, The Great Australian Race Riot, Australia, Recorded / Rendered Creative Works

Stanley P, 2014, Australia's Secret Heroes, Recorded / Rendered Creative Works