
Red Dust
A Classic Account of Australian Light Horsemen in Palestine During the First World War
Donald Black(Author)
Leonaur Ltd (Publisher)
Published on 19. June 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
212 pages
978-1-84677-483-6 (ISBN)
Description
An intimate portrait of war
There are books which report the experience of war and then there are a few that enable the reader to step into another's life to share war, both in the mind and the flesh. Red Dust is such a book. Written by a trooper of the Australian Light Horse on campaign in the Middle East during the Great War against the Ottoman Turkish empire it tells of 'mateship,' hard campaigning and brutal conflict-often hand to hand and described in relentless detail. It also allows the reader to share the thoughts of this ordinary man-a man of his time and his country-as he struggles to rationalise the horror and futility of war, his feelings on the loss of comrades, the embryonic sense of otherness from the Imperial motherland and the loss of youth. The action takes place principally in the Jordon Valley in Palestine-a grinding stalemate of a phase in what was often one of fluid manoeuvre. Here the troops experienced fiercely hot days, freezing nights, scorpions and spiders and the ever present threat of the tenacious and respected enemy. Red Dust is a rare book in every sense and will be sure to reward all those interested in the First World War and fine writing.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Driffield
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
306 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84677-483-6 (9781846774836)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Donald Black is University Professor of the Social Sciences at the University of Virginia. Black received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan in 1968, and he taught at Yale and Harvard before moving to Virginia in 1985.