Ben Shephard obituary

Historian who focused on the psychological effects of 20th-century warfare

The historian and writer Ben Shephard, who has died aged 69 of cancer, had a lifelong interest in the psychological effects of war. His book A War of Nerves (2000) changed our understanding of military psychiatry by describing entirely unsentimentally those who emerged from the wars of the 20th century uprooted, brutalised and traumatised, and who happened to receive only rudimentary, often flawed help in their efforts to rebuild their lives.

As Ben's editor at The Bodley Head for the last 10 years, I was aware of how rarely he used the terms "victims" or "survivors": he had little time for some of the recent, often emotive historical discussion that focused on these terms. In a lecture at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in London before the book was published, Ben did not give a standard account, from first world war Blackadderish ignorance to current post traumatic stress disorder-led enlightenment. Rather, he made it clear that his heroes were to be found more during the course of the two world wars.