by Juliet Barker
|
by John Keegan
|
by Antony Beevor
|
by John Keegan
|
by Bernard Cornwell
|
See buying choices for this item to see if it's one of the millions that are eligible for Amazon Prime.
|
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
Review
This is a modern classic: a brilliant treatise on how and why men fight in wars; based on survivors' accounts analysed by the distinguished military historian. It proved to be the writing on the wall for the boring, de-humanized chess-board of military history. Using the battles of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme, Keegan thrusts the imagiantion of the reader into the front line of death, fear and maiming. Review by Anthony Beevor, whose books include the prize-winning 'Stalingrad' (Kirkus UK)
Sixty years ago, Pound argued for a scholarship of the telling fact; he would have to commend this splendid history, in which John Keegan gives us the spectacle of battle with such luminous and precise detail that not only battle's gruesome distress for the common soldier, but also the circumjacent conditions of battles fought and won, become vividly clear. The specific British victories Keegan examines are three, and take place over a period of 500 years and a geographical range of 100 miles: the battle of Agincourt, where Henry V fought by the side of his 6,000 archers and cavalrymen, each in sixty pounds of armor, man-to-man; Waterloo, where Wellington rode all day behind the cannons to stay near the heaviest fighting; and the Somme in 1916, where the British lost thousands of men in the first minutes of battle, and where only the junior officers saw action. Keegan suggests that operations on the Somme set some limit to what men could stand on the battlefield; his thesis - and he draws imaginatively from official histories, military records, soldiers' reminiscences, and the British literature of war to demonstrate it - is that when the gulf between social life and battlefield existence has become too gaping, the fighting soldier may refuse to fight, and battles may become impossible to win. This is a book unusual in its research and intelligence, to be read by everyone - and not least our military leadership. Book-of-the-Month Club selection. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
This text looks at the military history of a battle scene by examining the experiences of individuals at the "point of maximum danger". The author has attempted to write the definitive model for military historians by reassessing the three battles of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme. He attempts to convey, to the reader, the reality of the battles as they were experienced by the participants. John Keegan is the author of "World Armies", "Six Armies in Normandy", "The Mask of Command", "The Price of Admiralty" and "The Second World War".
See all Product Description
This is a modern classic: a brilliant treatise on how and why men fight in wars; based on survivors' accounts analysed by the distinguished military historian. It proved to be the writing on the wall for the boring, de-humanized chess-board of military history. Using the battles of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme, Keegan thrusts the imagiantion of the reader into the front line of death, fear and maiming. Review by Anthony Beevor, whose books include the prize-winning 'Stalingrad' (Kirkus UK)
Sixty years ago, Pound argued for a scholarship of the telling fact; he would have to commend this splendid history, in which John Keegan gives us the spectacle of battle with such luminous and precise detail that not only battle's gruesome distress for the common soldier, but also the circumjacent conditions of battles fought and won, become vividly clear. The specific British victories Keegan examines are three, and take place over a period of 500 years and a geographical range of 100 miles: the battle of Agincourt, where Henry V fought by the side of his 6,000 archers and cavalrymen, each in sixty pounds of armor, man-to-man; Waterloo, where Wellington rode all day behind the cannons to stay near the heaviest fighting; and the Somme in 1916, where the British lost thousands of men in the first minutes of battle, and where only the junior officers saw action. Keegan suggests that operations on the Somme set some limit to what men could stand on the battlefield; his thesis - and he draws imaginatively from official histories, military records, soldiers' reminiscences, and the British literature of war to demonstrate it - is that when the gulf between social life and battlefield existence has become too gaping, the fighting soldier may refuse to fight, and battles may become impossible to win. This is a book unusual in its research and intelligence, to be read by everyone - and not least our military leadership. Book-of-the-Month Club selection. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
This text looks at the military history of a battle scene by examining the experiences of individuals at the "point of maximum danger". The author has attempted to write the definitive model for military historians by reassessing the three battles of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme. He attempts to convey, to the reader, the reality of the battles as they were experienced by the participants. John Keegan is the author of "World Armies", "Six Armies in Normandy", "The Mask of Command", "The Price of Admiralty" and "The Second World War".
See all Product Description
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
 |
87% buy the item featured on this page: The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme |
 |
8% buy Agincourt: The King, the Campaign, the Battle £6.49 |
 |
2% buy Longbow: A Social and Military History £12.74 |
 |
2% buy Azincourt £3.00 |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Europe
- Books > History > Military History > Armed Forces > Land Forces
- Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > Historians > Keegan, John
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
With Cavalry in the Great War...
1917. Illustrated. The author's narrative of and opinion on events of...
Read more
|
More From John Keegan
The First World War by John Keegan Despite the avalanche of books written about the First World War in...
Read more
|
A Close Shave |
Treat Someone
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). |
|||||||
| |||||
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
You have no recently viewed items or searches.
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session. |
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers
| ||||
Amazon Home | |
| International Sites: United States | Germany | France | Japan | Canada | China | |
| Business Programs: Sell on Amazon | Fulfilment by Amazon | Join Associates | Join Advantage | |
| Customer Service | Help | View Basket | Your Account | |
| About Amazon.co.uk | Careers at Amazon | |
| Conditions of Use & Sale | Privacy Notice © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates |