The Face of Battle

I debated between being objective about this nonfiction or just reviewing it based on my gut feeling. In the end, I had to give it a 5 for good analysis and its own bright objectivity. But for myself, I have to wonder why I read military history and why, after each time I do it, I feel sullied and un......more

Military historiography is one of the oldest literary genres (e.g. Herodotus and Thucydides). However for many years if a reader wanted to learn about the human experience of being in the midst of battle they needed to read the accounts of novelists such as Tolstoy and Stendhal. This book purports t......more

There are many things to like about the book. The author’s penchant for excoriating military historiographers for overwriting and vagueness is enjoyable. As a writer he can tend toward density, but he’s well worth slowing down for. His judgments on his fellows become, I think, downright comic after......more

My second time through this book, I was just as enthralled. It's a mysterious combination of history, historiography, and literary criticism. It teases out the way military history so often devolves into nationalistic takes or heroic mythmaking. Most mysteriously of all it unveils the moment-by-mome......more

It’s a rare day that I become smitten with a 75-year old historian, but that day came when I read the introduction to The Face of Battle. I have several of John Keegan’s books, most of them featuring lots of photographs, but this is the one that made him famous – and for good reason. His elegant pro......more