John Keegan Popular Books
John Keegan Biography & Facts
Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan (15 May 1934 – 2 August 2012) was an English military historian, lecturer, author and journalist. He wrote many published works on the nature of combat between prehistory and the 21st century, covering land, air, maritime, intelligence warfare and the psychology of battle. Life and career Keegan was born in Clapham to an Irish World War One veteran and was evacuated to Somerset when World War Two broke out. At the age of 13, Keegan contracted orthopaedic tuberculosis, which subsequently affected his gait. The long-term effects of this rendered him unfit for military service, and the timing of his birth made him too young for service in the Second World War, facts he mentioned in his works as an ironic observation on his profession and interests. The illness also interrupted his education in his teenage years, although it included a period at King's College, Taunton and two years at Wimbledon College, which led to entry to Balliol College, Oxford in 1953, where he read history with an emphasis on war theory. After graduation he worked at the American Embassy in London for three years. In 1960 Keegan took up a lectureship in military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which trains officers for the British Army. He remained there for 26 years, becoming a senior lecturer in military history during his tenure, during which he also held a visiting professorship at Princeton University and was Delmas Distinguished Professor of History at Vassar College. Leaving the academy in 1986, Keegan joined the Daily Telegraph as a defence correspondent and stayed with the paper as defence editor until his death. He also wrote for the conservative American publication National Review Online. In 1998, he wrote and presented the BBC's Reith Lectures, entitling them War in our World. Keegan died on 2 August 2012 of natural causes at his home in Kilmington, Wiltshire. He was survived by his wife, their two daughters and two sons. Published work In A History of Warfare, Keegan outlined the development and limitations of warfare from prehistory to the modern era. It looked at various topics, including the use of horses, logistics, and "fire". A key concept put forward was that war is inherently cultural. In the introduction, he vigorously denounced the idiom "war is a continuation of policy by other means", rejecting "Clausewitzian" ideas. However, Keegan's discussion of Clausewitz was criticised as uninformed and inaccurate by writers like Peter Paret, Christopher Bassford, and Richard M. Swain. Other books written by Keegan are: The Iraq War, Intelligence in War, The First World War, The Second World War, The Battle for History, The Face of Battle, War and Our World, The Mask of Command, and Fields of Battle. He also contributed to work on historiography in modern conflict. With Richard Holmes he wrote the BBC documentary Soldiers: A History of Men in Battle. Frank C. Mahncke wrote that Keegan is seen as "among the most prominent and widely read military historians of the late twentieth century". In a book-cover blurb extracted from a more complex article, Sir Michael Howard wrote, "at once the most readable and the most original of living historians". Views on contemporary conflicts Keegan stated: "I will never oppose the Vietnam War. Americans were right to do it. I think they fought it in the wrong way. I don't think it's a war like fighting Hitler, but I think it was a right war, a correct war." Keegan believed that NATO's bombing of Serbia and Serbian targets in Kosovo in 1999 showed that air power alone could win wars. An article in The Christian Science Monitor called Keegan a "staunch supporter" of the Iraq War. It quotes him: "Uncomfortable as the 'spectacle of raw military force' is, he concludes that the Iraq war represents 'a better guide to what needs to be done to secure the safety of our world than any amount of law-making or treaty-writing can offer.'" Criticism Keegan was also criticised by peers, including Sir Michael Howard and Christopher Bassford for his critical position on Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian officer and author of Vom Kriege (On War), one of the basic texts on warfare and military strategy. Describing Keegan as "profoundly mistaken", Bassford stated, "Nothing anywhere in Keegan's work – despite his many diatribes about Clausewitz and 'the Clausewitzians' – reflects any reading whatsoever of Clausewitz's own writings." The political scientist Richard Betts criticised Keegan's understanding of the political dimensions of war, calling Keegan "a naïf about politics." In his 1997 book Revolutionary Armies in the Modern Era: A Revisionist Approach (described as "too flawed to be recommended as an undergraduate text"), historian S.P. MacKenzie reports Keegan as saying that the best panzer units of the Waffen SS altered the course of the war and were "faithful unto death and fiercer in combat than any soldiers who fought them on western battlefields". Detlef Siebert, a television documentarian, disagreed with Keegan's view that the deliberate targeting of civilian populations by aerial bombing 'descended to the enemy's level', although he did call it a 'moral blemish'. Honours On 29 June 1991, as a war correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, Keegan was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "in recognition of service within the operations in the Gulf". In the 2000 New Year Honours, he was knighted "for services to Military History". He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 1986. In 1993 he won the Duff Cooper Prize. In 1996, he was awarded the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize for lifetime achievement by the Society for Military History. The University of Bath awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) in 2002. Works Waffen SS: The asphalt soldiers (New York: Ballantine, 1970) ISBN 0-345-32641-5 Barbarossa: Invasion of Russia, 1941 (New York, 1971) ISBN 0-345-02111-8 Opening Moves – August 1914 (New York: Ballantine, 1971) ISBN 0-345-09798-X Guderian (New York: Ballantine, 1973) ISBN 0-345-03385-X Rundstedt (New York: Ballantine, 1974) ISBN 0-345-23790-0 Dien Bien Phu (New York: Ballantine, 1974) ISBN 0-345-24064-2 The Face of Battle (London, 1976) ISBN 0-670-30432-8 Who Was Who in World War II (1978) ISBN 0-85368-182-1 The Nature of War with Joseph Darracott (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981) ISBN 0-03-057777-2 Six Armies in Normandy (1982) ISBN 0-14-005293-3 Zones of Conflict: An Atlas Of Future Wars with Andrew Wheatcroft (New York, 1986) ISBN 0-671-60115-6 Soldiers: A History of Men in Battle with Richard Holmes (New York: Viking Press, 1986) ISBN 0-670-80969-1 The Mask of Command (London, 1987) ISBN 0-7126-6526-9 The Price of Admiralty (1988) ISBN 0-09-173771-0 The Illustrated Face of Battle (New York and London: Viking, 1988) ISBN 0-670-82703-7 The Second World War (Viking Press, 1989) ISBN 0-670-82359-7 Churchill's Generals (Weidenfeld &am.... Discover the John Keegan popular books. Find the top 100 most popular John Keegan books.
Best Seller John Keegan Books of 2024
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The Anatomy of Liverpool
Jonathan Wilson, Jonathan Wilson Ltd & Scott MurrayJonathan Wilson and Scott Murray provide a forensic analysis of ten key Liverpool games that have shaped the club's fortunes over the last century: from the longlost triumphs of To...
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The Mammoth Book of Modern Battles
Jon E. LewisFrom the start of the 20th century to the most recent major offensives, here are fifty accounts of the battles that made the modern world, described in superb detail by historians ...
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The Fall of Carthage
Adrian GoldsworthyThe struggle between Rome and Carthage in the Punic Wars was arguably the greatest and most desperate conflict of antiquity. The forces involved and the casualties suffered by both...
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The Ways of War
Tom Kettle & Mary Sheehy KettleThe Ways of War is Kettle's autobiographical work which is based on the letters he was sending from the battlefield to his wife Mary. Kettle was one of the most brilliant figu...
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The Ways of War
Tom Kettle & Mary Sheehy KettleTom Kettle, an Irish economist, journalist, barrister, writer, war poet, soldier and Home Rule politician joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913. With the outbreak of World War I in 1...
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The Face of Battle
John KeeganJohn Keegan's groundbreaking portrayal of the common soldier in the heat of battle a masterpiece that explores the physical and mental aspects of warfareThe Face of Battle is mili...
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The Snow Ball
Brigid BrophyWhen Anna is kissed by a mysterious stranger at a NYE masquerade ball, a dance of seduction begins.'So original and refreshing.' Hilary Mantel'Brilliantly seductive ... A witty, se...
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Making History
Richard CohenA “supremely entertaining” (The New Yorker) exploration of who gets to record the world’s historyfrom Julius Caesar to William Shakespeare to Ken Burnsand how their biases influenc...
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The Rodfather
Roddy Collins & Paul HowardThe hilarious memoir from the funniest man in football!Roddy Collins is a football man now in the sixth decade of a career as a player (at sixteen clubs), manager (twelve clubs) a...
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The Second World War
Antony BeevorA masterful and comprehensive chronicle of World War II, by internationally bestselling historian Antony Beevor. Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as...
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Nothing On Earth
Conor O'CallaghanThe critically acclaimed psychological chiller from a powerful new voice in Irish literary fiction.SHORTLISTED FOR THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2017 'As fine as it is fr...
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Jutland, 1916
Nigel Steel & Peter HartDramatic, illustrated account of the biggest naval battle of the First World War.On 31 May, 1916, the great battle fleets of Britain and Germany met off Jutland in the North Sea. I...
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Agincourt
Juliet BarkerFrom a master historian comes an astonishing chronicle of life in medieval Europe and the battle that altered the course of an empire. Although almost six centuries old, the Battle...
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The Down Side, Book 4 in the John Keegan Mystery Series
John MisakNew York City gets caught off guard by the brutal murder of actor Patrick Dillons. Homicide detective John Keegan returns to the job he walked away from and his first case lands hi...
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The Imprint of Eternity
Philip John KeeganThis series of essays aims to clarify and enlighten the position of Jesus as the one unifier of all Spiritual Truth and religious beliefs.Written over a period of some twelve years...
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True Justice
Robert K. TanenbaumFor Butch Karp, chief assistant district attorney for New York County, the nightmare begins when a shocking act of negligence results in homicide. Goaded by the media's sensational...
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Desert Rats
John ParkerIn the recent war in Iraq, the 7th Armoured Brigade, bearers of the Desert Rats insignia, was immediately engaged in some of the fiercest early fighting, ultimately taking Basra fo...
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The Ways of War
Tom Kettle & Mary Sheehy KettleTom Kettle, an Irish economist, journalist, barrister, writer, war poet, soldier and Home Rule politician joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913. With the outbreak of World War I in 1...
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The Fighters
C. J. ChiversThe harrowing account of US soldiers caught in America’s forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that The New York Times calls “relentless...a classic of war reporting,” by Pulitzer P...
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Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
Ambrose BierceThis carefully crafted ebook: "Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (26 Stories: includes Chickamauga + An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge + The MockingBird)" is formatted for yo...
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Quartered Safe Out Here
George MacDonald FraserGeorge MacDonald Fraserbeloved for his series of Flashman historical novelsoffers an actionpacked memoir of his experiences in Burma during World War II. Fraser was only 19 when he...
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The Visibles
Sara ShepardThis #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “spinechilling thriller that blurs the lines of fact and fiction” (Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author) The Elizas weave...
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I, Robot
Peter CrouchA Daily Mail Book of the YearWhat happens on the pitch is only half the story. Being a footballer is not just kicking a ball about with twentyone other people on a big grass rectan...
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The Boot Room Boys
Peter HootonNow also a new documentary film written and presented by Peter Hooton, The Boot Room Boys BT Sport April 2022.The Boot Room story starts in 1959 when Bill Shankly arrived and conv...