The University at War, 1914–25

Universities, war and the professionalization of dentistry

“…This "quietist tradition" has been challenged by recent studies highlighting the on-going struggles of veterans, their families and repatriation systems to cope with return (Garton, 1996;Lloyd and Rees, 1994). There has also emerged a rich historiography on war grief, mourning, memorialisation and the burden on families caring for injured and ill veterans (Damousi, 2001;Larsson, 2009;Ziino, 2007;Jalland, 2006). More generally, the return of veterans is integrated into larger general studies of the interwar years that highlight the political, social and economic difficulties then facing Australia, the longterm bitterness arising from conscription, and the general retreat into a defensive culture more concerned with protection, nationalism and Empire loyalism in contrast to the confident social experimentation of early Federation (Garton, 2014;Macintyre, 1999;Williams, 1995).…”

“…But until recently, the relationship between universities and the first global conflict of the twentieth century has been neglected. In the last few years, however, there has been an international reassessment of the relationship between universities, war and society as transformative, both during and after the conflict (Pietsch, 2012;2013;Irish, 2015;Windsor, 2014). By pointing to the international nature of scholarly networks, to the way they mobilised and fostered academic expertise in the service of war, and to their lasting effects into the 1920s and 1930s, this emerging literature contends that universities should be central to the ways historians understand both the First World War and the period after it.…”