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Australia on the Home Front during WWI

It is a strange dichotomy that wars both can create unity and promote divisions on the home front, as was the case in Australian 1914 – 1918. Australians greeted the news of the outbreak of war in 1914 with almost indecent enthusiasm. They were excited by war’s adventure and they were incredibly over – confident. Patriotic unity was high when the war began, but as it progressed, serious rifts and divisions in society developed. The war, no matter how important historically and influencing national identity, it created serious divisions and hostility within the nation. The war placed tremendous pressures on Australian society in general. Men’s and women’s roles were polarized. Women suffered immensely during this time, only able to help the war effort by knitting etc. Each recruit left behind a family, all of whom would now condemned to years of anxiety and waiting. Industrial unrest increased. So tense had the social and industrial scene become in Australia that ob...

Posted by: Andres Cisneros

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