Abstract
Historians have tended to treat the anti-Catholicism of the conscription controversies of 1916–17 as a homogeneous phenomenon. Consequently, the sectarian undercurrents of wartime Australian society have been presented as a unified whole, obscured behind an ill-defined characterisation of Protestant bigotry. This article addresses this problem by distinguishing themes within the broader anti-Catholic dynamic. It tracks the expression and consolidation of anti-papal enmities, racial prejudices, and political suspicions as underlying themes of anti-Catholic ideology in the wartime community. Although these prejudicial strands overlapped, by examining each in isolation we get a clearer picture of both the broader sectarian phenomenon and the conscription debates’ sustaining of the issue.
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