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Absolutely Revolting
Military History

Cruel indeed

by Marilyn Lake •
February 2014, no. 358

Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War by Joan Beaumont

Allen & Unwin, $55 hb, 656 pp, 9781741751383

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If you read only one book about Australia’s experience of World War I, as the deluge of commemorative publications marking the outbreak of the war becomes a veritable tsunami, make it Broken Nation, an account that joins the history of the war to the home front, and that details the barbarism of the battlefields as well as the desolation, despair, and bitter divisions that devastated the communities left behind.

 


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Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War by Joan Beaumont

Allen & Unwin, $55 hb, 656 pp, 9781741751383

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

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Comments

David Stephens
Monday, 14 April 2014 15:19
Sturdy review of an impressive work. The key to attitudes to war perhaps found in the remark about 'sympathy for the Anzacs can deflect anger from those who sent them to war and kept them there'. Governments always want sympathy for soldiers to flow over to support for politicians. More reviews of the book linked from http://honesthistory.net.au/wp/beaumont-joan-broken-nation/

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