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History of Warfare - John Keegan

Description: ISBN 0712698507 / Author: John Keegan / Genre: Politics / Society / Philosophy / In this book, winner of the Duff Cooper prize, the ... more

History of Warfare - John Keegan ... author, a military historian, provides not merely a history of warfare but an analysis of world history, and the role that man's impulse to war has played in it. This book is the result of 30 years of reading, research, teaching and commenting on military affairs. It brings together in a single volume the themes explored in the author's earlier books and adds to them the insights gained in his visits to many of the world's major battlefields, a lifetime's friendship with soldiers of different armies and his more recent experience as a war correspondent in the Lebanon and the Gulf.

Newest Review: ... the Western history. Apart from the introduction and the epilogue, devoted to the extensive discussion of 'what war is' and ... more

... 'what war should be' questions, the rest of the book is divided into six sections, three main ones and three interludes. The interludes examine warfare from the point of view of external circumstances (geography and climate), fortifications and logistics. The main sections, entitled 'Stone', 'Flesh' and 'Fire' present the actual, roughly chronological account. 'Stone' deals with warfare of the primitive peoples and the early civilisations and concludes with the invention of the chariot. 'Flesh' concentrates, perhaps...more

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History of Warfare - John Keegan: Howling Forever (1670 words)
by - written on 03/11/05 (Very useful, 488 readings)
Rating:

'History of Warfare' presents a look at the whole European/Western history (with substantial incursions into other cultures, notably China and Japan) from the perspective of warmaking. Considering how important warfare is in history as we know it, it's not surprising that Keegan's narrative is fairly coherent and rarely interrupted. From a war to a war, from a battle to a battle, with a revolution or a conquest thrown in for a good measure, pretty much everything in the outline of the known history gets covered. The book varies in how detailed its account of actual events, dates and battles is in relation to a more general discussion of developments in ... Read the complete review