"The Face of Battle" is military history from the battlefield: a look at the direct experience of individuals at the "point of maximum danger." Without the myth-making elements of rhetoric and xenophobia, and breaking away from the stylized format of battle descriptions, John Keegan has written what is probably the definitive model for military historians. And in his scrupulous reassessment of three battles representative of three different time periods, he manages to convey what the experience of combat meant for the ...
Read More
"The Face of Battle" is military history from the battlefield: a look at the direct experience of individuals at the "point of maximum danger." Without the myth-making elements of rhetoric and xenophobia, and breaking away from the stylized format of battle descriptions, John Keegan has written what is probably the definitive model for military historians. And in his scrupulous reassessment of three battles representative of three different time periods, he manages to convey what the experience of combat meant for the participants. Whether they were facing the arrow cloud of Agincourt, the musket balls at Waterloo, or the steel rain of the Somme.
Read Less
Add this copy of The Face of Battle to cart. $12.30, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 1983 by Penguin Books.
It was geared more toward military history classes
EmmetNZ
Apr 5, 2007
A must have
Keegan stands alongside possibly only Sir Michael Howard as the collossus of post-WWII British military historians/analysts. Howard himself calls The Face of Battle, "one of the half-dozen best books on warfare to appear in the English language since the end of the Second World War". Keegan uses the direct experience of participants in the epochal battles of Agincourt, Waterloo and Somme to examine the physical conditions and the pychological characteristics of battle - noise, steel, mud, blood, killing, death, glory and fear. Like all works by Keegan, there is much to debate and disagree about. His views and conclusions are often contestable. But then that is the mark of great history - small stuff to debate within an overall thesis of truth, all the while adding new perspective to old ideas. Buy this and if you like it add, Soldiers and Mask of Command to your basket as well.
