Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War - Hardcover

Beaumont, Joan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1741751381 ISBN 13: 9781741751383

Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 2013

Synopsis

Winner of the 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Australian History.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.A century after the Great War, Broken Nation brings lucid insight into the dramatic events, mass grief and political turmoil that makes the memory of this terrible war central to Australia's history.'A deeply researched, judicious and multi-faceted account of the war that became Australia's greatest tragedy - highly readable for a modern audience.' - David Horner, Professor of Australian Defence History, Australian National University

About this title

Product Description:

The Great War was, for the majority of Australians, one that was fought at home. As casualties of this monstrous war mounted, they triggered a political crisis of unprecedented ferocity in Australian history. Faultlines emerged in the ensuing years that would forever change the political landscape, rendering Australia a broken nation. And yet, despite the deep sacrifices and in the face of a mounting death toll, most Australians continued to support the war. It was their resilience, their willingness to suffer economic hardship and their stoic acceptance of casualties that no modern democracy would tolerate that made the war effort possible. Joan Beaumont's Broken Nation is the first book to bring together all the dimensions of the Great War, in a narrative that weaves together brilliant scholarship with storytelling, bringing to life the young men in the battlefield trenches and their loved ones at home. We witness the fear and courage of the tens of thousands of soldiers, pace the war rooms of Australian command that dictated the direction of the war, and come to understand the deep sacrifices as death on an unprecedented scale mounts. Broken Nation brings lucid insight into the mass grief and pride that has made the memory of this terrible war central to the making of Australia. Accessible and authoritative, Broken Nation is the essential companion as Australians head towards the centenary of the Great War.

Book Description:

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1741751381
• ISBN 13: 9781741751383
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 656