John Keegan

Author profile

born

May 15, 1934 in Clapham, The United Kingdom

gender

male

genre

Military History, Biographies & Memoirs

About this author

edit data

Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan OBE is a British military historian, lecturer and journalist. He has published many 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

combine editions
Books by John Keegan

Average rating: 3.90 · 9,379 ratings · 687 reviews · 76 distinct works

	The First World War 3.89 avg rating — 2,026 ratings — published 1998 — 17 editions	My rating:
	The Face of Battle 4.14 avg rating — 1,316 ratings — published 1976 — 26 editions	My rating:
	The Second World War 3.98 avg rating — 965 ratings — published 1989 — 10 editions	My rating:
	A History of Warfare 3.98 avg rating — 775 ratings — published 1993 — 19 editions	My rating:
	The Mask of Command 4.01 avg rating — 502 ratings — published 1987 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Six Armies in Normandy: From D-Day to the Liberation of Paris; June 6 - Aug. 5, 1944; Revised 3.89 avg rating — 385 ratings — published 1982 — 11 editions	My rating:
	Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda 3.57 avg rating — 308 ratings — 16 editions	My rating:
	The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare 3.87 avg rating — 221 ratings — published 1988 — 6 editions	My rating:
	The American Civil War: A Military History 3.46 avg rating — 221 ratings — published 2010 — 13 editions	My rating:
	Winston Churchill 3.70 avg rating — 193 ratings — published 2002 — 12 editions	My rating:

More books by John Keegan…

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

Quotes by John Keegan

“The ANZACs, clinging lost and leaderless to the hillsides, began, as the hot afternoon gave way to grey drizzle, to experience their martyrdom.”
― John Keegan

tags: dryly-poetic

3 people liked it

“For our purpose, however, what the soldiers did or did not read is irrelevant. For, if soldiers did not learn to fight their battles from reading books, neither is it likely that military historians learned to write their books from watching battles. Battles are extremely confusing; and confronted with the need to make sense of something he does not understand, even the cleverest, indeed preeminently the cleverest man, realizing his need for a language and metaphor he does not possess, will turn to look at what someone else has already made of a similar set of events as a guide for his own pen.”
― John Keegan

3 people liked it

“Of whatever class or nation, however, all successful participants in the repetitive and unrelenting stress of aerial fighting came eventually to display its characteristic physiognomy: skeletal hands, sharpened noses, tight-drawn cheek bones, the bared teeth of a rictus smile and the fixed, narrowed gaze of men in a state of controlled fear.”
― John Keegan, The First World War

2 people liked it

See all John Keegan's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
History: Actual, ...: Pre Discussion: World War One	80	73	Jan 01, 2010 03:09pm
The History Book ...: 2. KILLER ANGELS (HF) ~ SECTIONS - 2. CHAMBERLAIN + 3. BUFORD (01/11/10 - 01/17/10) ~ No spoilers, please	31	51	Jan 22, 2010 07:12am
The History Book ...: 4. KILLER ANGELS (HF) ~ SECTIONS - 2. BUFORD + 3. LEE - (91 - 121) (01/25/10 - 01/31/10) ~ No spoilers, please	22	31	Jan 30, 2010 11:36am
The History Book ...: 5. KILLER ANGELS (HF) ~ SECTIONS - 4. CHAMBERLAIN + 5. LONGSTREET - (122 - 142) (02/01/10 - 02/07/10) ~ No spoilers, please	39	44	Feb 08, 2010 04:49pm
The History Book ...: THE SPOILER THREAD FOR THE FIRST WORLD WAR	1	21	Feb 16, 2010 01:03am
History: Actual, ...: First World War - The War Outside Europe	18	30	Feb 17, 2010 07:09pm
The History Book ...: THE FIRST WORLD WAR ~ TOC AND SYLLABUS	5	84	Feb 21, 2010 09:38pm

More…

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite John to Goodreads.