Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War
Author(s): Joan Beaumont
The Great War is, for many Australians, the event that defined our nation. The larrikin diggers, trench warfare, and the landing at Gallipoli have become the stuff of the Anzac 'legend'. But it was also a war fought by the families at home. Their resilience in the face of hardship, their stoic acceptance of enormous casualty lists and their belief that their cause was just, made the war effort possible. Broken Nation is the first book to bring together all the dimensions of World War I. Combining deep scholarship with powerful storytelling, Joan Beaumont brings the war years to life: from the well-known battles at Gallipoli, Pozieres, Fromelles and Villers-Bretonneux, to the lesser known battles in Europe and the Middle East; from the ferocious debates over conscription to the disillusioning Paris peace conference and the devastating 'Spanish' flu the soldiers brought home. We witness the fear and courage of tens of thousands of soldiers, grapple with the strategic nightmares confronting the commanders, and come to understand the impact on Australians, at home and at the front, of death on an unprecedented scale.
Product Information
The Australian experience of war in all its complexity - from the homefront as well as the battlefront - as the men and women who experienced it chose to understand and remember it.
Winner of Queensland Literary Awards: University of Southern Queensland History Book Award 2014. Shortlisted for Council for the Humanities, Arts Social Sciences (CHASS) Australia Prize for a Book 2014.
Joan Beaumont is an internationally recognised historian of Australia in the two world wars, the history of prisoners of war and the memory and heritage of war. She is Professor of History at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, and has published several books about World Wars One and Two.
List of illustrations..List of tables and figures..List of maps..Preface..Acknowledgements..Abbreviations and acronyms..Prologue: Joe Russell's war..1. 1914: Going to war..2. 1915: Gallipoli and mobilisation at home..3. 1916: War of a different kind..4. 1917: The worst year..5. 1918: Crisis and victory..6. 1919: Peace and memory..Appendix 1: Organisation of the 1st AIF, 1918..Appendix 2: AIF enlistments by month, 1915-18..Notes..Bibliography..Index
General Fields
- :
- : Allen & Unwin
- : Allen & Unwin
- : 0.952
- : 01 August 2014
- : 234mm X 153mm X 34mm
- : Australia
- : 01 October 2014
- : books
Special Fields
- : Joan Beaumont
- : Paperback
- : 1014
- : English
- : 940.40994
- : 656
- : HBWN
- : illustrations