Each week from the 1850s to the 1940s, thousands of Australians would change from their civilian clothes into military uniforms in the evenings or on weekends to practise military drills and target shooting. They were citizen soldiers: men, and later, women who did not sleep in barracks and could not be ordered overseas to fight but who trained in their spare time to defend `hearths and homes'--to repel any attack on Australia.

When the Japanese army thrust south in 1942 and Australians' hearths and homes finally seemed threatened, the citizen soldiers at last found themselves in the front line. By exploring a once popular activity, this book expands our knowledge of everyday life in Australia. It explains why our constitution links citizenship with military service, why conscription for overseas service was so controversial for so long, and why Australian soldiers have come to exhibit an individualistic and even subversive character. It offers a case study of some of the most important changes in Australian society over a 90 years; the rise and fall of the martial spirit, the collapse of the ethos of amateurism, and the evolution of a British identity into the Australian one.