What is the meaning of war to those who live through it? How do most of us, as outsiders, understand the reality of their lived experience? What happens once soldiers are home? And what of their sicknesses, their injuries, even their death? These are just some of the questions that The Dark Pocket of Time explores.

Many veterans have lived through unspeakable experiences. Then, on return home, they must deal with unwieldy bureaucracies. This has remained a constant from World War One until the present. Kate Blackmore examines the soldier's war on the Western Front in detail, looking in particular at trench warfare and the medical conditions it spawned. She then investigates the origins of the present veterans' system: how medicine became integral to cost-containment; how a particular attitude became entrenched in the repatriation bureaucracy; and how both of these factors profoundly affected the lives of veterans during and after the 'Great War'.

Many things have changed for the better over time in Australia. Arguably, some things have not changed at all.

Contents:
The great ordeal -- 'The old lie': the soldier's war on the Western Front -- Setting up a department -- Doctors and soldiers: new chapters in the history of medicine -- Demobilisation, repatriation and Australian productivity -- War, medicine and responsibility for illness -- War pensions: the 'clinical toss up' and the 'national purse' -- What an Australian is worth by cut and kilogram: a leg, an eye and other case studies in the war pensioning process.


Includes index. Bibliography: p. 247-271.