Media: BOOK - paperback, 248 pages
Author: M. Oppenheimer, M. Anderson & M. Paul
Year: 2017
ISBN: 9781743054741
Other: b&w photos, bibliog, index
Publisher: Wakefield Press

In August 1914 South Australians, much like their fellow Australians around the country, enthusiastically displayed their patriotism when war was announced. It's a story we know well, but what do we know of South Australia in the lead up to the First World War? What was it like to live there at the time? What were South Australians talking about?

'South Australia on the Eve of War' considers unique aspects of the state in this pre-war period, including the political reverberations of Federation, the town planning of what was then Australia's third-largest capital, Adelaide, and the shifting social positions of women, Indigenous Australians and minority groups.

These insights help us understand South Australia's response to the war that would consume the state and its people for the next four years.

Contents:
Acknowledgements
1. Progressive conservatism and boundless optimism: South Australia on the eve of war
2. Adjustment to statehood: South Australia from the Boer War to the Great War
3. New women and the modern family: Continuity and change in pre-war domestic life
4. 'Better protection and control': Aboriginal people and the state of South Australia 1901-1914
5. 'Of course you have to take the Rough with the Smooth': South Australia's British farm apprenticeship scheme
6. Eyre Peninsula on the eve of the Great War: A rural dimension
7. Town planning in the 'Garden City of the South'
8. 'No more loyal subjects': Indians contesting White Australia
9. German South Australia on the eve of war
10. Irish South Australians in 1914: Unconditional imperial loyalty?
Notes
Contributors
Index

Reviews:
'Interesting issues which occurred during the years leading up to 1914.' - Nic Klaassen, Flinders Ranges Research

'This book presents well researched and considered points of view on varied aspects of South Australian life by contributors who are clearly knowledgeable in their field.' - Rob Welsh, ReadPlus

'This book is not just relevant to South Australians, it demonstrates the varied nature of Australian history and the need to pay attention to the history of each colony/state when thinking of Australian history. It is easy to read and with its discrete chapters and is a good book for the busy reader who needs something that they can pick up and put down.' - Yvonne Perkins, Stumbling Through the Past

'A broad range of topics, each well-written with meticulous research, provides the history buff and the casual reader with a detailed and fascinating picture of our state on the eve of the Great War.' - Jan Kershaw, Glam Adelaide