AustLit

'World War One: a history in 100 stories remembers not just the men who fought, and those who lost their lives in during the battles of WWI. We hear the stories of the women and families who were affected, and those who returned to Australia: the gassed, the crippled, the insane - all those irreparably damaged by war.

'There has been no shortage of heroic stories over the course of the Anzac Centenary: 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.

'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.

'This is an unflinching and remarkable social history that makes an important contribution to the way we remember. Telling the whole truth about war requires its own kind of courage.' (Publication summary)