''If you read only one book about Australia's experience of World War I ... 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.' - Marilyn Lake, Australian Book Review
'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.' (Publication summary)
'Recordkeeping systems develop under the influence of their environment. An organisation’s compilation of records, their form, content and dissemination can be in response to external factors. How the recordkeeping administration of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) developed, expanded and changed over time is illustrative of the influences on the creation of records. The administration of the First Australian Imperial Force, including its recordkeeping, developed in an environment of heated political debate in Australia over that nation’s participation in the war and two failed attempts to introduce conscription. Circumstances in late 1915 combined to force a reluctant Australian government to intervene in the detail of AIF records administration in Egypt despite the government’s expectation that involvement at such a level in AIF management abroad would be unnecessary. This article examines the circumstances at work in Australia that led to such an intervention. It describes the events leading to the decision and traces the causes for the decision to factors in the political, social and military context.' (Publication abstract)
'Based on a keynote address to the 2018 International Society for First World War Studies conference, the author’s survey of a centenary of archival endeavour comprises four time periods and two themes. It highlights the unique role of the Australian War Memorial and its initial documentation priorities favouring Dr C.E.W. Bean’s official war history, the battlefront and the war dead. A post-centenary open-ended aftermath is also discussed covering processing backlogs, the prospective idea of ‘digital breakthrough’ and the archival implications of ever-widening understandings of the war and its endless aftermaths. The paper ends with an appeal for new voices in researching the documentation of Australia’s Great War experience.' (Publication summary)
Kay Saunders reviews Joan Beaumont’s account of Australia’s first world war
'Based on a keynote address to the 2018 International Society for First World War Studies conference, the author’s survey of a centenary of archival endeavour comprises four time periods and two themes. It highlights the unique role of the Australian War Memorial and its initial documentation priorities favouring Dr C.E.W. Bean’s official war history, the battlefront and the war dead. A post-centenary open-ended aftermath is also discussed covering processing backlogs, the prospective idea of ‘digital breakthrough’ and the archival implications of ever-widening understandings of the war and its endless aftermaths. The paper ends with an appeal for new voices in researching the documentation of Australia’s Great War experience.' (Publication summary)
'Recordkeeping systems develop under the influence of their environment. An organisation’s compilation of records, their form, content and dissemination can be in response to external factors. How the recordkeeping administration of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) developed, expanded and changed over time is illustrative of the influences on the creation of records. The administration of the First Australian Imperial Force, including its recordkeeping, developed in an environment of heated political debate in Australia over that nation’s participation in the war and two failed attempts to introduce conscription. Circumstances in late 1915 combined to force a reluctant Australian government to intervene in the detail of AIF records administration in Egypt despite the government’s expectation that involvement at such a level in AIF management abroad would be unnecessary. This article examines the circumstances at work in Australia that led to such an intervention. It describes the events leading to the decision and traces the causes for the decision to factors in the political, social and military context.' (Publication abstract)
