This book, the first of its kind to be published in Australia, is a scholarly analysis of Australian soldiers who suffered psychologically in the First World War.

It is a closely researched and compellingly written work which opens a whole new dimension on a long ignored aspect of Australian military history of the Great War.


Working against the grain of the official histories and the populist view of that war, here is a counter-history that is both unsettling and compassionate.


The author explores the sometimes uneasy relationship between the Australian military, the medical establishment, the public and those who returned from the war with their minds shattered.


British experts have commented favourably on the work as opening a new field of Australian military history. This book tries to make sense of a forgotten generation of war veterans.


It also challenges a number of long cherished myths surrounding both the commemoration of war and the treatment of psychological casualties.