About this title: A splendid new edition of a modern classic, illustrated with paintings, prints, engravings, battle plans, and photographs, and featuring a new introduction by the author. Illustrated.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult
Date Published: 1989-03-31
ISBN-13:9780670827039ISBN:0670827037
Description: Good. Moderate to medium shelf and edge wear (to dust jacket only). Text clean and unmarked, binding tight. Has some small stains on top and fore edge. read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Binding is slightly damaged and/or book has some loose pages. No missing pages. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: American ed. Illustrated.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Books
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780670827039ISBN:0670827037
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. 7-14-09 TP BX 27. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 304 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First American
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking, New York
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780670827039ISBN:0670827037
Description: Quarto; vg+/vg-; dj, blue spine with white text; HB, orange cloth spine with gilt lettering; minor shelf wear and bumping; text block, clean; endpapers, tinted blue; 303 pp.; illus., text figures, photos and plates; some color; dj, sunned; fore-edges, tears; else very good. Military. 7-8-1148008. read more
Edition: First Thus
Binding: Hardcover-Cloth
Publisher: Viking Press, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780670827039ISBN:0670827037
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Between 10 and 11 Inches. First edition thus. First published in 1976, this copy is the 1989 reprint. Hardcover. VG (minor shelfwear; a small stain on bottom rear corner; internally clean) in VG dj. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Adult
Date Published: 1989-03-31
ISBN-13:9780670827039ISBN:0670827037
Description: Good. Excellent customer service. May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability. Satisfaction guaranteed! ! read more
"As he confesses in the first few pages, John Keegan has never been in war, but he sure writes about it a lot. I'd always wanted to read a book by this eminent British historian and, to be honest, I chose this one because it was the shortest. For what it is, it's very good.
After a longish critique of how poorly history is generally written, especially by the Brits, Keegan gets down to the business of describing three historically significant European battles - Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme -- in great detail. Quite often, this is quite interesting, but without the storytelling sweep and narrative drive of great history. As the title suggests, Keegan is out to tell us exactly what battle is like, but the information he offers is (to quote a better, if far less accurate, historian) full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
"The classic examination of battlefield experience. The obvious, logical, and instinctual thing to do in the face of mortal danger is to flee. Why do men stand and fight in the face of death? What compels them to act against all reason?
Keegan looks at three battles fought in close geographical proximity. The English victory against the French at Agincourt, Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, and the British and French offensive against Germany along the Somme. This is not about strategy or even much about tactics. This is about how it felt to be a soldier in the battle.
What was it like to advance against the shower of arrows from the English archers? What was it like to stand armed only with lances and swards against the French cavalry charge? What was the experience of combat with swords and personal armor?
How did it feel to stand in an infantry square facing a cavalry charge? What was it like for cavalry to charge 19th-century artillery? Or to charge into the rifle fire of infantry? What did it look and sound and smell like to stand in line and square off against opposing infantry with 19th-century rifles?
What was it like in a foxhole under modern artillery fire? What was the experience of going over the top into machine gun fire?
In all these experiences Keegan considers the gut feel and psychological effects. Sitting helplessly in a trench not knowing when the artillery shell that will kill you will come. The overwhelming sensory experience of standing in front of a charging horse. The terrifying restriction of movement and vision from wearing 15th-century armor.
I know of no other book like this. It is the classic in it's field. And for good reason."
"Keegan's "A History of Warfare" made me want to minor in military history. It was readable. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for "The Face of Battle" which he wrote in the mid-1970s. He either became a much better writer or snagged a much better editor sometime between 1976 and 1996. Read this book if you wonder what it might have been like to be a soldier at Agincourt, Waterloo, and/or the Somme."
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