Sir John Keegan, military historian, has died

[Guest]

Sir John Keegan, who has died aged 78, achieved an international reputation as a military historian, then discovered a talent for writing rapid analyses of international crises as the defence editor of The Daily Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/9447744/Sir-John-Keegan.html

He is regarded as having unmasked the human face of war in his first book The Human Face of War

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/shashankjoshi/100174455/sir-john-keegan-unmasked-the-human-face-of-war/

[vinteuil]

... thanks for that, Ammy.

I've been a fan of his for a long time. I see I referred to him a couple of days ago on the Hollow Crown thread -

I can very much recommend John Keegan's The Face of Battle - A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme.

/ ... /

He is excellent on the psychology of what men actually experienced and how they really behaved in battle, as well as on the more traditional areas of strategy, tactics, logistics, etc.

[Richard Tarleton]

I recently read his The First World War - unutterably grim tale brilliantly told, with wisdom and humanity. Thanks for the tip re The Face of Battle, v - a rare unfavourable review on Amazon is headed "Flawed by awful grammer" [sic]