of the thoughts about Australia that had been exercising one's mind during the war years." Further evidence of its significance to Bean is provided by the fact that he finished the book in late October/November 1918 on his return to Paris from where he continued to visit battalions and drive to Battlefields to obtain photos before they altered. He visited Fromelles on 11 November 1918, Armistice Day. Realising the significance of this tragic 1916 battle to the young Australian nation, Bean walked over the ground to think, reflect and record. In this Bean revealed much of himself: his dedication to these men, their legacy and their role in shaping our nation's emerging identity. In Your Hands, Australians further illustrated Bean’s’ dedication to these men, their legacy and their role in shaping Australia’s emerging identity. As he anticipated the end of World War II Charles Bean published a second monograph. As with In Your Hands, Australians, the second monograph, War Aims of a Plain Australian, bore the character of a personal letter to all Australians, urging the nation to embrace social improvement. It was published in 1943 and republished in 1945. “He (Bean) has a warm belief in his country and in its people, and has tried in this book to express constructively, avoiding cynicism, the hopes of ‘plain Australians’ for the future of their nation and the world… " Bean described this book as ‘An effort to stimulate thought towards grasping this time the chances we missed after World War 1’. ‘The ball will be at our feet within a year or two. Surely it is high time that we give serious thought as to what we should do with it. The object of this little book is to help that thought; to direct some readers, perhaps, to points that must be considered, and, together with essays of the same kind by other pens, to give impetus to further thought and discussion. May we all play the game with larger wisdom than in 1918 and with our whole strength, so as to win not only the war but the peace – This time.’ Of his books, both these short books, In Your Hands, Australians and War Aims of a Plain Australian have been considered as perhaps the most revealing of Bean’s character as a “social missionary. Critical reception Bean was a proponent of the White Australia ideology and envisaged a