John Keegan
Personal Information
Description
Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan was a British military historian, lecturer, writer and journalist. He was the author of many published works on the nature of combat between the 14th and 21st centuries concerning land, air, maritime, and intelligence warfare, as well as the psychology of battle. - Wikipedia
Books
The eye of war
The Eye of War is a chronicle of the changing face of conflict as recorded by the men and women who went to the front and captured on film, or in words, the experience of battle. From the Crimean War, the American Civil War, through two world wars, Vietnam and the two recent Gulf Wars to the Balkans and beyond, photographers have been drawn to the battlefront. Just as warfare has been transformed by technology, so have the cameras that document the watching, the waiting, the heat of battle, or the bloody aftermath; weapons have become more deadly whilst the camera has become smaller, quicker, sharper. The best photographs distil the chaos of war into visual icons that haunt the mind. This book selects 200 of the most powerful, together with poignant first-hand descriptions by battlefield witnesses, to make an outstanding visual record. The great war photographers of each era are represented, including Robert Capa, W. Eugene Smith and Yevgeny Khaldei, all active in the Second World War; Don McCullin and Larry Burrows in Vietnam, and, currently, James Nachtwey. The vastness of the Pacific vies with the empty steppes of Russia in 1942, the squalor of the 1914-18 trenches with that of street fighting and innocent civilian casualties, particularly in more recent wars.
The Second World War
"The Second World War surpassed all previous wars in the sheer cost of many millions of lives, the majority of them civilian. It left a world reeling from physical destruction on a scale never experience before or since, and from the psychological traumas of loss, of imprisonment and genocide, and permanent exile from home.". "In this short book, Joanna Bourke turns an unblinking eye on the events and outcomes in the vast number of places where the war was fought: throughout Western and Central Europe, on the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union, in the Pacific, in Africa, in Asia. She shows where the strategic decisions came from and how they were implemented. In addition to the facts of this global conflict, she details the human, individual cost. Through diary entries and recorded oral history, we experience how ordinary people felt when they witnessed or heard of events, from the declaration of war on the radio to the mass murders carried out by Nazi soldiers in Russian villages." "Our understanding of the past conflict and our own age of violence and human atrocity into which the Second World War thrust us will be greatly enhanced by the scope and detail of this book."--BOOK JACKET.
World War II
WARFARE & DEFENCE. Inside AIR FORCE: Air forces of World War II - Fighter planes - Bombing runs - Escort duty - Key missions - Battle of Britain - Combat units - D-Day, plus much more! Get tough with some of World War II's fighting men and units. From battlefield frontlines to Naval convoys, from secret missions to aerial dogfights, Action Force brings together the people, weapons, vehicles, the stats and the facts in one all-action World War II series. You want action packed? Read Action Force! Ages 9+.
A history of warfare
In A History of Warfare, Keegan outlines the development and limitations of warfare from prehistory to the modern era. It looks at various topics, including the use of horses, logistics, and "fire". One key concept put forward is that war is inherently cultural. In the introduction, he rigorously denounces the idiom "war is a continuation of policy by other means", rejecting on its face "Clausewitzian" ideas
Six armies in Normandy
"The armies of six nations met on the battlefields of Normandy in what was to be the greatest Allied achievement of World War II. With dramatic, driving power, John Keegan describes the massed armies--American, Canadian, English, German, Polish, and French--at successive stages of the invasion. As he details the strategies of the military engagements, Keegan brilliantly shows how each of the armies reflected its own nation's values and traditions. And in a new introduction written especially to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day, he contemplates the ways the events in Normandy still reverberate today"--Cover page 4.
The First World War
Discusses, in text and illustrations, the causes, events, outcome, and lasting impact of the First World War.
An Illustrated History of the First World War
Now Keegan gives us a lavishly illustrated history of the war, brilliantly interweaving his narrative —some of it derived from his classic work and some of it new— with a brilliant selection of photographs, paintings, cartoons and posters drawn from archives across Europe and America, some published here for the first time. These images take us into the heart of battles that have become legend: Ypres, Gallipoli, Verdun, the Somme. They show us life on the British, American, French and German home fronts. They show us the generals' war and the privates' war —young soldiers, away from home for the first time, coming of age under fire. We see how a civilization at the height of its power and influence crippled itself as the faith in progress, rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment was shattered. We see how four empires —the German, the Russian, The Austro-Hugarian and the Ottoman—collapsed, and how the sees for the Second World War planted. Keegan tells how ambition, mistrust and failures of diplomacy and communication all played a part in allowing this conflict to set ablaze what was then the world's most prosperous society. And he describes how the effects of this war lasted long after it ended; its ghosts still haunt Europe today. An Illustrated History of the First World War carries us across the Europe of nearly a century ago, revealing the devastation, camaraderie, political machinations, and battlefield maneuverings that change the world presents the essential cast of the cataclysmic drama, from the decision makers at the top —Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, Pershing— to the troops in the trenches. Through its unique amalgam of pictorial and narrative brilliance, the work illuminates the war as no other work has done.
The Face of Battle
The Face of Battle is military history from the battlefield: a look at the direct experience of individuals at 'the point of maximum danger'. It examines the physical conditions of fighting, the particular emotions and behaviour generated by battle, as well as the motives that impel soldiers to stand and fight rather than run away. And in his scrupulous reassessment of three battles, John Keegan vividly conveys their reality for the participants, whether facing the arrow cloud of Agincourt, the levelled muskets of Waterloo or the steel rain of the Somme.
The American Civil War
"The Civil War is the central event in American history. More than any other event, the war defined the American people and nation." "Following a narrative history, Kingseed offers six stimulating topical chapters covering such issues as the transformation of Abraham Lincoln, why Lee lost the battle of Gettysburg, and the consequences of the War from a contemporary perspective. Eighteen biographical sketches of key civilian, military and political figures such as Clara Barton, Matthew Brady, J.E.B. Stuart, Ulysses S. Grant, and Frederick Douglass personalize the momentous events of the Civil War, while 16 keenly annotated primary documents, ranging from Lincoln's "House Divided against Itself" speech to Jefferson Davis's Inaugural speech to a bluejacket's remembrances of the horrors witnessed during and after the Battle of Antietam. Ten illustrations, a map of the major campaigns, chronology of events, glossary, annotated bibliography, and index complete this one-stop research resource on the American Civil War."--Jacket.