1st Edition

Australia's War 1914-18

Edited By Joan Beaumont Copyright 1995
    234 Pages
    by Routledge

    234 Pages
    by Routledge

    Australia's War, 1914-18 explores Australia's involvement in the First World War and the effect this had on the nation' s society. In this very accessible book, Joan Beaumont, Pam Maclean, Marnie Haig-Muir and David Lowe focus on: where Australians fought and why; the tensions and realignments within Australian politics in the period of 1914-18; the stresses of the war on Australian society, especially on women and those whom wartime hysteria cast in the role of the 'enemy' at home; the impact of the war on the country's economy; the role played by Australia in international diplomacy; and finally, the creation and influence of the Anzac legend.

    Once dominated by the battlefield and official accounts of the war correspondent and official historian, C.E.W. Bean, Australian writing on the war has acquired a new depth and sophistication. Studies of the home front reveal a society riven by divisions without precedent in the nation's history.

    This single volume will be invaluable to tertiary students and of enormous interest to the reader concerned with the social, political and military history of Australia.

    Tables and figures

    Maps

    Acknowledgments

    Abbreviations

    Contributors

    Chronology of the war

    Introduction Joan Beaumont

    1 Australia's war

    Joan Beaumont

    2 The politics of a divided society

    Joan Beaumont

    3 War and Australian society

    Pam Maclean

    4 The economy at war

    Marnie Haig-Muir

    5 Australia in the world

    David Lowe

    6 The Anzac legend

    Joan Beaumont

    Select bibliography

    Index

    Biography

    Joan Beaumont teaches in the School of Australian and International Studies at Deakin University. She is the author of Gull Force: Survival and Leadership in Captivity, 1941-45 and is a respected Australian historian of war and international history.