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World War One: A History in 100 Stories
There has been no shortage of heroic stories over the course of the Anzac stories of courage and sacrifice, fortitude and endurance, mateship and resolve. But a hundred years on, there is a need for other stories as well - the stories too often marginalised in favour of nation-building narratives.World War a history in 100 stories remembers not just the men and women who lost their lives during the battles of WWI, but those who returned home as the gassed, the crippled, the insane - all those irreparably damaged by war.Drawn from a unique collection of sources, including repatriation files, these heartbreaking and deeply personal stories reveal a broken and suffering generation - gentle men driven to violence, mothers sent insane with grief, the hopelessness of rehabilitation and the quiet, pervasive sadness of loss. They also retrieve a fragile kind of courage from the pain and devastation of a conflict that changed the world. This is an unflinching and remarkable social history. It is an act of remembering in the face of forgetting. Telling the truth about war requires its own kind of courage.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 21, 2015
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March 12, 2017
Like the understorey of a forest, this book represents the almost invisible, multi-layered world that reveals the long-term consequences of the devastation of war.
It is compelling, but often grim and heart-breaking reading.
100 lives torn apart by war have been recorded. After 100 years, their searing story lifts off the page. Sometimes, these lives were commemorated beyond their own families, and had local or national attention, but for many, the full extent of their war sorrow and suffering, and its context, may not yet have been told. The research that has gone into each story is extensive. The archival repositories – national and international - have been a testament to those who founded and nurtured them, yielding precious information, both personal and social.
In the social context of the Great War, anyone female, Indigenous or non-British (especially German or German-background), was likely to be treated with extreme prejudice - something that could wrongfully impact on their entire life. The indigenous ANZAC stories are possibly the most heart-breaking in the book. For all, onus of proof was on the survivor, to ‘prove’ their war service had disabled them or their ability to provide for their families.
Previously, I had wondered about the survivors – the returned servicemen and nurses, and what I had not realized was an extensive civilian corps of volunteers. I had not realized that the survivors who were ill, injured, maimed and shattered in mind, body and soul, numbered in the tens of thousands – it is thought as many as 60,000. Terribly, the then Defence Force was overwhelmed and reluctant to bear the brunt of so many thousands needing pensions, life-long medical assistance, and support to re-make a life and a livelihood. These servicemen, and nurses, had given ‘For King and Country’, but in the years after the war, there was so little support for them, that many died terrible deaths by their own hand or in mental institutions. Their innocent families suffered terribly with them.
The redeeming strength of this book is recognition and illumination.
The website carries all the stories in entirety.
It is compelling, but often grim and heart-breaking reading.
100 lives torn apart by war have been recorded. After 100 years, their searing story lifts off the page. Sometimes, these lives were commemorated beyond their own families, and had local or national attention, but for many, the full extent of their war sorrow and suffering, and its context, may not yet have been told. The research that has gone into each story is extensive. The archival repositories – national and international - have been a testament to those who founded and nurtured them, yielding precious information, both personal and social.
In the social context of the Great War, anyone female, Indigenous or non-British (especially German or German-background), was likely to be treated with extreme prejudice - something that could wrongfully impact on their entire life. The indigenous ANZAC stories are possibly the most heart-breaking in the book. For all, onus of proof was on the survivor, to ‘prove’ their war service had disabled them or their ability to provide for their families.
Previously, I had wondered about the survivors – the returned servicemen and nurses, and what I had not realized was an extensive civilian corps of volunteers. I had not realized that the survivors who were ill, injured, maimed and shattered in mind, body and soul, numbered in the tens of thousands – it is thought as many as 60,000. Terribly, the then Defence Force was overwhelmed and reluctant to bear the brunt of so many thousands needing pensions, life-long medical assistance, and support to re-make a life and a livelihood. These servicemen, and nurses, had given ‘For King and Country’, but in the years after the war, there was so little support for them, that many died terrible deaths by their own hand or in mental institutions. Their innocent families suffered terribly with them.
The redeeming strength of this book is recognition and illumination.
The website carries all the stories in entirety.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 of 1 review