ABSTRACT
This chapter uses the wartime correspondence of General Sir John Monash to expose civilians’ painful experiences of enduring World War I at home in Australia. It shows that the key emotional expressions of the war – fear, pride, anxiety, love – attended Australians from the earliest moments of the conflict. While fear and anxiety modulated in intensity in relation to the fighting, they grew considerably in the latter part of the war, defying efforts at containment. As the war persisted, Australians tied to the war by their loved ones at the front struggled to cope with their constant anxiety, and the knowledge that the bereavement that so marked their communities might also engulf them.
