Abstract
Despite the rise of comparative and transnational history writing, histories of the Great War have remained remarkably bound by the nation-state. This is especially the case in Australia and New Zealand, where there has been, arguably, a recent entrenchment of the view of the Great War as a nation-making moment. This article offers the provocation that the creation of vast numbers of records during the war did make the nation: files demanded a new bureaucracy and they made the state material. The files also became materials for historians who went on to equate the national army with the nation at war. Another foray into the archives, however, suggests that despite military files being designated national heritage, they can reveal the tensions of belonging and exclusion present during and after the war.Abbreviations: AIF Australian Imperial Force ANZ Archives New Zealand BR Base Records NZEF New Zealand Expeditionary Force