Beaumont, Joan, Lachlan Grant & Aaron Pegram, ed.
Beyond Surrender: Australian Prisoners of War in the Twentieth Century, Melbourne University Press, Carlton Vic. 2015; available electronically
Over the twentieth century 35,000 Australians suffered as prisoners of war in conflicts ranging from World War I to Korea. What was the reality of their captivity? Beyond Surrender presents for the first time the diversity of the Australian ‘behind-the-wire’ experience, dissecting fact from fiction and myth from reality.
Beyond Surrender examines the impact that different types of camps, commandants and locations had on surrender, survival, prison life and the prospects of escape. It considers the attitudes of Australian governments to those who had surrendered, the work of relief agencies and the agony of families waiting at home for their husbands, brothers and fathers to be freed.
Covering several conflicts and diverse sites of captivity, Beyond Surrender showcases new research from Kate Ariotti, Joan Beaumont, Lachlan Grant, Jeffrey Grey, Karl James, Jennifer Lawless, Peter Monteath, Melanie Oppenheimer, Aaron Pegram, Lucy Robertson, Seumas Spark and Christina Twomey. (blurb)
The book is reviewed for Honest History by Kristen Alexander. Peter Edwards reviews the book in Australian Outlook. Honest History reviewed the conference. The conference was under the auspices of ANU and the Australian War Memorial and the AWM did a media release on the book. In 2016, Aaron Pegram did a podcast on POWs with Mick on The Dead Prussian blog.
