A Unique Look At Warfare (The Face Of Battle - John Keegan)

Member Name: Pamsy

Product:	The Face Of Battle - John Keegan
Date:	17/07/01 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unique look at battle, Varied, Makes many conclusions

Disadvantages: None

THE FACE OF BATTLE explores what it was really like to be in battle at various eras in history.

John Keegan, a senior instructor at Sandhurst, uses somewhat the same organization as in his MASK OF COMMAND, but where that dealt with generals, leadership, and strategy, this book goes right into the front lines with fighting soldiers from the Middle Ages to World War One.

This book looks at war from a different perspective - through the eye of the soldier - with little detail on the greater tactical picture. The advantage of this is that bias is taken away, since the book has no concern with who was the victor or who fought best in the circumstances. This doesn't necessarily make the book of less value to a historian than the average battle analysis. Many conclusions can be made once a historian has an accurate knowledge of the way things were seen and percieved at the time. It is the soldiers eye view that the historian strives to find, for it shows why certain units failed to take that particular hill, why they surrendered seemingly prematurely, and so on.

Keegan examines three pivotal battles involving Britain: Agincourt in 1415, Waterloo in 1815, and the Somme in 1916. He points out what they have in common and in what ways they are different, from the weapons used to the tactical considerations that affected combat soldiers in each era. His basic thesis is that warfare proceeds by advances in weapons technology -- at Agincourt, for instance, it was the English archers' longbows ... at the Somme massed artillery and fixed machine guns. He describes vividly the sights and sounds of a battle and what soldiers thought and felt, often quoting from eye-witness documents.

He also points out a long arc over 500 years -- at Agincourt, the "old style soldiers" (mounted knights) wore crests and blazons so as to be individually recognized on the field ... at Waterloo, 400 years later, battle was still fairly personal, a
nd as a battle went on, men on opposite sides came to recognize the same individuals they had fought off in previous charges ... by World War I, however, making war had become an anonymous, industrialized process, with faceless men killing other faceless men mostly at long distance.

If you had to choose just one Keegan book to read, this should be it. Easy to read, filled with interesting material and astute observations.

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