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Joan Beaumont Joan Beaumont i(7367855 works by)
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

'Joan Beaumont works in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, The Australian National University. Her publications include the critically acclaimed Broken Nation: Australians and the Great War (2013); Ministers, Mandarins and Diplomats: The Making of Australian Foreign Policy, 1941–69 (ed.); Australia's War, 1939–45 (ed.); Australia's War, 1914–18 (ed.); and Gull Force: Survival and Leadership in Captivity, 1941–1945 (1988). She has developed a website on The Thai–Burma railway and Hellfire Pass for the Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs and is a member of the Australian Research Council project, Serving Our Country: A History of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the Defence of Australia.' (Source: ABR May 2014)

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2020 recipient Order of Australia Member of the Order of Australia (AM) For significant service to education, particularly to the study of war history.

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Broken Nation : Australians in the Great War Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2013 7949419 2013 single work non-fiction

''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)

2015 winner Asher Literary Award
2014 winner Queensland Literary Awards History Book Award
2014 joint winner Prime Minister's Literary Awards The Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History With Hal G.P. Colebatch's Australia's Secret War.
Last amended 27 Jan 2020 14:41:20
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