Dr Clare Rhoden is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Melbourne. In The Purpose of Futility (2015), she surveys Australian Great War narratives, demonstrating their particularly Australian features which help to explain the unique and disputed position of the Great War in Australian history. She discusses the polarity of Australian perspectives of its involvement in the First World War: the myth of the heroic young nation proving itself, and this concepts link to militarism, or obedience to British Empire demands, and links to a disenchantment myth.