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A History of Warfare

by John Keegan

3.98 · rating details · 645 ratings · 43 reviews

The acclaimed author of The Face of Battle examines centures of conflict in a variety of diverse societies and cultures. "Keegan is at once the most readable and the most original of living military historians . . . A History of Warfare is perhaps the most remarkable study of warfare that has yet been written."--The New York Times Book Review.

Paperback, 496 pages

Published November 1st 1994 by Vintage (first published January 1st 1993)

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Aug 31, 2009

Jason rated it

Wow. Do not go head-to-head with this erudite military historian.

Sweeping in its range--from 6000 BC fertile crescent to Cold War mutually assured destruction; inclusive in its coverage--from the Manchu in North Korea to the Mamelukes in Egypt to the Yanomamo in Brazil; comprehensive in its topics--from stone to flesh to iron to fire. This is truly a history of warfare.

As a member of the military, I was introduced, taught to memorize, encouraged to stress, and told to b...moreWow. Do not go head-to-head with this erudite military historian.

Sweeping in its range--from 6000 BC fertile crescent to Cold War mutually assured destruction; inclusive in its coverage--from the Manchu in North Korea to the Mamelukes in Egypt to the Yanomamo in Brazil; comprehensive in its topics--from stone to flesh to iron to fire. This is truly a history of warfare.

As a member of the military, I was introduced, taught to memorize, encouraged to stress, and told to believe the tenants of the putative father of warfare, Carl von Clausewitz. Clausewitz argues that warfare is 'the extension of politics by other means,' and John Keegan begins his History of Warfare by laying out the tools by which he will utterly destroy that thesis. Modern western military treats Clausewitzian theory as hallowed and consecrated as the Shroud of Turin. However, I've always had the sneaking suspicion that a single theory of warfare, held unequivocally, had to be in error. Keegan simply gives me the arguments to defend this suspicion of mine.

There's nothing incorrect about Clausewitz' theories. However, Keegan uses dozens of cultural examples of warfare to show that, instead of being universal, Clausewitz' theories are only appropriate to a certain time in history, specific to a particular kind of warfighter, and applicable to a unique set of resolves from the warring nations. Keegan makes a parting appeal to Western military not to fall victim to tenants of warfare that today seem immutable. These may merely be in favor to a Western way of warfare, but could change based on a number of events.

The take-away from this book is Keegan's methodical progress through the turning points in the history of warfare. He underscores the warfare utility of animal domestication, the chariot, fortifications, the warhorse, the phalanx, and gunpowder. He discusses the unique implications of culture on warfare technique, tactics, and procedures. Each warfighting organization was dominant in its time and area based on a unique set of guiding, cultural principles. The Zulus, the Magyars--Vikings, Spartans, Huns; the Roman legions, the British navy--Samurai, Aztec, Ottomans; all practiced a kind of warfare that was born of a logical accumulation of regional technology, culture, and exposure to adjacent warfighters. Meanwhile, Keegan's encyclopedic knowledge of all things warfare allows him to effortlessly draw parallels between cultures separated by thousands of years, and to find worthwhile links in strategy embodied by militaries as diverse from one another as Mongols and the US Confederacy, conquistidores and the German luftwaffe.

Keegan begins with an intriguing denial of Clausewitz, and seems to set this as his overall theme. However, he often writes for up to 50 pages without revisiting his theme. He offers a well written chronology of warfare, but rarely makes the connection between it and Clausewitz. I believe the book would have been more focused if Keegan's theme was mentioned within each chapter, or as he calls them, interludes. Instead, we have a history of warfare that begins and ends with a conversation about Clausewitz, but little reference in between. I'm left learning a lot about warfare, but without an overriding theme, the breadth of this book is too much for only 490+ pages. It ultimately reads as a glancing--though scholarly--review of the highlights of warfare.

4 stars for a balanced, skilled review of the fundamental movements of 8000 years of warfare. No more than 4 stars because this is the abridged Britannica of warfare, should have been longer or more focused, and could have been the seminal book to deny Clausewitz.(less)

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May 06, 2009

Tim rated it

Keegan's history of warfare is a thick tome, full of wonderful detail and history that ranges beyond warfare (where sometimes Keegan's footing is less firm). It was never a slog, but certainly a book that requires more attention than the drowsiness just before sleep. Keegan begins with Clausewitz's dictum that war is just politics pursued by other means and takes it apart and takes it to task. It seems the west has fought differently from the rest of the world for millenia - Keegan does not ...more

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Nov 23, 2011

Mike Edwards rated it

Shelves: history, war, philosophy

A horrid book for two reasons. First, Keegen willfully misrepresents Clausewitz. Clausewitz argues that warfare takes place within a political context, and is, in fact completely defined by that political context: hence "war is a continuation of politics by another means". Keegan attacks Clausewitz for advocating warfare as a rational way for countries to settle their differences; a position that Clausewitz never takes, because Clausewitz is very clearly describing what is, no what ...more

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May 12, 2009

Glen rated it

Keegan divides military organizations into six categories: warrior, mercenary, slave, regular, conscript, and militia, then uses roughly structured yet pithily titled sections: Stone, Flesh, Iron, and Fire to proceed on a wide-ranging anthropological and historical review of warfare throughout the ages. Obviously, he is an eminently knowledgeable historian, though like Dr. Jared Diamond, he tends towards geographical determinism. Also, he joins B.H. Liddel-Hart in his disdain for Clauswitz' si...more

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Jun 02, 2010

Scarlet rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

I quailed a little bit when I downloaded this from my library, as it's one of the biggest audiobooks I've ever tackled--19 parts, each about 70 minutes. I was a bit confused by the organization of the book for quite a while, as the author, a military historian who retired from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, has no qualms about leaping all over time and geography to find examples to illustrate his points. I was expecting something more chronological, a la Sid Meier's Civilization. I envisi...more

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Nov 07, 2009

Patrick4000 rated it

I went through this book right after finishing Martin Van Creveld. The Transformation of Warfare. The former, which I honestly liked better, was more of a cultural examinaton of war while Keedan's tome focused on anthropology. Keegan makes an attempt to find the biological underpinnings of man's desire to pick a fight.
A minor complaint is his refusal to stick to chronology. As he moves through the history of warfare but will jump back and forth across the ages to provide examples and adag...more

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Jan 11, 2009

Benji rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 20, 2008

Aldean rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: history, my-unschooling, out-on-loan

This book sat on my shelf, beautiful but unread, until I heard a fascinating interview on NPR one night with a historian who turned out to be John Keegan, soon to be my favorite military historian. I started reading this the next day.

This in an ambitious work, attempting as it does to cover al of military history from pre-history all the way through the then current-day late Twentieth Century. That Keegan manages to write such a book that covered that vast sweep of years in a manner ...more

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Oct 11, 2010

Ryan rated it

Recommended to Ryan by: Phil

Shelves: non-fiction, philosophy-history, own

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. He begins the book with an analysis of one of the most well-known books on war: Clausewitz's "On War" written in the 1800s by the Prussian officer. It gave the definition of war as the "continuation of policy by other means" and used the regiment as the basis for all military organization. He, along with Marx, used ideological descriptions to explain society, and specifically, war. He described "real war", which is how it was typically fought, to "true war"...moreHe begins the book with an analysis of one of the most well-known books on war: Clausewitz's "On War" written in the 1800s by the Prussian officer. It gave the definition of war as the "continuation of policy by other means" and used the regiment as the basis for all military organization. He, along with Marx, used ideological descriptions to explain society, and specifically, war. He described "real war", which is how it was typically fought, to "true war", which is how he thought war should be fought. Specifically, he called for the development of political and social identity of soldiers in a regiment in order to continually motivate soldiers to willingly give their lives for their country, unit, etc. (instead of just leaving service as soon as possible). It was his ideas that led to the development of huge peacetime stockpiling of troops and weapons and the eventual destruction of WWI (because all of the wealth of Europe was used to create huge motivated armies). Keegan argues that Clausewitz failed in his definition/explanation of war because he failed to distinguish between all of the cultural differences in how war is carried out and to what purpose.

*** Japan was a unique situation in the history of war because they had the technology of gunpowder but declined to use it in favor of a culture of the sword. It was essentially a severe gun-control culture because gunpowder was not needed in order to ensure national security. The shogunate governed every detail of the peoples' lives and maintained the "natural" form of the sword instead of the chemical energy of gunpowder. It helped maintain the class and political system by preventing a quick overthrow of the government through military force (only the ruling class were even allowed to own swords). The swords of that time period were the best edged weapons ever constructed. There is a film of a sword made by a 15th century maker slicing through a machine-gun barrel. Some of these swords were hammered and rehammered so much they contained more than 4 million layers of finely forged steel.

*** The Arabs of Islam created a new type of warfare, one that was clearly based on religious principles. It taught the necessity of submission to its revealed teachings and the right of its believers to take arms against those who opposed them. Muhammad taught that Muslims were brethren and should not fight each other, but they should fight all other men until they confessed in the one true God. There were no problems with territoriality and kinship because Islam transcended those categories. There was also no conflict between material wealth and Islam so they could conquer as much land and wealth as possible (as did Muhammad himself). With the death of Muhammad, however, Islam was split, although its armies were still successful in uniting a vast section of the world because they traversed so many demographic boundaries (and the relatively weak status of most major empires at that time contributed as well).

*** Another interesting section explained the success of the horse people's (such as Ghenghis Khan, but others as well). Because they were essentially a highly mobile army in an age of slow movement, they were able to attack across vast distances with lightning speed. On the other hand, they could never be a truly occupying force, only a plundering one, because of the vast supplies required to maintain the hundreds of thousands of horses they traveled with. So they were great conquerers, but unable to maintain any kind of empire and usually fell apart in a relatively short period of time (other than in their native grassland areas where they could support a large amount of horses). (less)

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Sep 11, 2010

Jake rated it

Shelves: history, history-military, warfare

I decided to read this one after listening to a course on Military History from the Teaching Company. I've always had a fondness for military history, and figured that this would expand my knowledge and baseline.

This book turned out to be a bit more than I expected, though not in a bad way. More than just a military history, Keegan's History of Warfare is an attack against the Clausewitzian notion that "war is a continuation of politics by other means". Instead, Keegan argu...moreI decided to read this one after listening to a course on Military History from the Teaching Company. I've always had a fondness for military history, and figured that this would expand my knowledge and baseline.

This book turned out to be a bit more than I expected, though not in a bad way. More than just a military history, Keegan's History of Warfare is an attack against the Clausewitzian notion that "war is a continuation of politics by other means". Instead, Keegan argues that war is a cultural phenomenon, and that culture, not politics, is one of the driving forces behind warfare.

The book itself is broken up into five main sections: War in Human History, Stone, Flesh, Iron, and Fire. These are separated by smaller sub-chapters, Limitations on War-making, Fortification, Armies, and Logistics and Supply. In each section, Keegan examines the history of warfare as it relates to a particular technology or development (the Flesh chapter, for example, focuses a great deal on the Steppe nomad cultures).

The scope of this book is, not surprisingly, quite wide. Keegan is trying to cover the history of warfare throughout the globe, which necessitates a superficial look at any particular conflict. Readers interested in an in-depth look at any particular conflict would be better served by looking at something else. On the flip side, this book is intellectually rigorous enough to not quite qualify as "light reading". This book is not a "History Channel" summary of battles and conflicts; Keegan is seeking to illustrate a particular idea, and much of his discussion and writing is focused on that notion. If you're not into military history, or if you are simply looking for a quick and dirty summary of some battles, this book will not serve you well at all.

Personally, I enjoyed the book and found reading it quite valuable. A very brief web search indicates that the book is a source of some controversy among historians, which means nothing except that it was published and some historians read it. Given Keegan's widespread popularity as a writer of military history, I think that anyone interested in the subject would find reading this worthwhile. Even if Keegan's argument does not convince you, the man is influential enough to be worth reading.

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Apr 10, 2009

Jeff rated it

Why have groups of men fought each other? How have groups of men fought each other? How have social conditions affected the ways in which groups fight? How have new strategies and technologies changed the way groups fight?

Particularly, what conditions in the decades leading up to 1914 contributed to the massive loss of life in The Great War and The Second World War? And what is the future of warfare?

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May 26, 2011

bkwurm rated it

This should have properly been titled "The History of Western Warfare". Hardly any space is given to the wars fought in China and India, especially during the period of China's Warring States.

I was also very disappointed by the author's attempt to attribute the "brave", "in your face" method of warfare as being uniquely Western while characterising the methods of war practised by non Westerners as being hit and run or ritualisitc or in some way, not da...more

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Jan 28, 2008

Bill rated it

A small collection of essays on the history of warfare, starting with the beginning of recorded history and ending with Gulf War I (at which time this book was written). John Keegan brings an encyclopedic knowledge to bear, but this is not an encyclopedia of warfare. Rather, it is a handful of detailed but crisp and concise essays, taking as their central thesis the explosion of the famous quotation from Clausewitz that war is the continuation of politics by other means.

This is a...more

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Feb 09, 2011

Ben B rated it

Shelves: i-own

Only Keegan could draw comparisons and contrasts among 5,000 years of combat. Like The Face of Battle, this book looks at warfare from the soldier's point of view, affording the reader a taste of the experience of battle down through the ages. Great history.

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Sep 05, 2009

Cade rated it

Recommends it for: historians, military stratigists, politicians, people interested in our current affairs

An interesting account of warfare. The roles it has historically played. How various cultures deal with and wage war. And mostly the build up to World War I and how the world changed with the mechanized military.

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Oct 27, 2011

Huw Evans rated it

Shelves: warfare, history

Keegan's writing style is very dry, almost dusty. However he writes with an eye for detail that has been well researched. He charts the way warfare has developed over the centuries with the advent of each technological leap from close quarters stabbing to the high tech video missile. He also outlines the way that armies have changed in their structure and complexity. In terms of its relevence to modern political and military history I would rate it alongside Sun Tsu and von Clausewitz. I don'...more

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Apr 16, 2007

taarak rated it

Recommends it for: Military enthusiasts

Shelves: robbarrettsaudiobookshelf

The incomparable John Keegan takes on war, the universe, and everything.

Starting with the premise that all civilizations owe their origins to warmaking, Keegan probes the meanings, motivations, and methods underlying war in different societies over the course of more than two thousand years. Following the progress of human aggression in its full historical sweep, from the strangely ritualistic combat of Stone Age peoples to the warfare of mass destruction in the present age, his illu...more

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Mar 22, 2009

Devon Capshaw rated it

Probably the best ever compilations and analysis of evolution of military tactics.

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Feb 23, 2010

Jordan rated it

A broad history of warfare that is accessible to the non-historian. <3 John Keegan.

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Oct 06, 2009

Steven Salaita rated it

Horridly boring and doubly disappointing given how interesting the title sounds.

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Jun 04, 2007

Brian Moroz rated it

This is one of my favorite books on war not because it is the best possible history or because everything that Keegan states can be taken as completely true. Its pleasure comes from the story he tells about war and man and civilization. Broken into chapters around key weapon types like Stone, Flesh, Iron, and Fire, he creates a history and group psychology for homo sapiens through the lens of war. Others have done this through the lens of rum, or salt, or medicine. This happens to use war, ...more

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Jun 04, 2011

João Cruz rated it

· review of another edition

Uma obra fundamental. E basta.

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Feb 26, 2010

Reed rated it

The consummate work on warfare.

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Jan 26, 2011

Marc Cooper rated it

Very engaging book. Military history meets cultural anthropology.

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Feb 19, 2008

Scott Ryan rated it

Recommends it for: curious people who like having a framework of how the world works

John Keegan shows that the history of warefare is, in many ways, the history of humanity. I came away with a much better sense of why political borders of the world exist as they do and why national defense carries so much weight as a political priority.

The first chapter dissects Clauswitz ("War is politics by other means") in what is probably too much detail for most people. I recommend reading that chapter as far into it as you can stand, then skip to chapter two, which...more

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Sep 20, 2007

Nick rated it

As in other books of his that I've read, Keegan divides history into pieces and tells detailed stories within each piece to provide a sense of the whole. Nice as a capstone work of one of the great military historians, and the book succeeds in covering a huge topic in limited space.

Keegan opens with the argument that Clausewitz's view of war as a type of state political interaction is incorrect. Instead, he argues that war is human activity that pre-dates states and exists independen...more

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Mar 03, 2011

Maxo Marc added it

A riveting read.

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Jul 20, 2010

Melinda added it

Shelves: abandoned-part-way-through

audiobook

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Aug 20, 2007

superkiky X rated it

Recommends it for: Military Enthusiasts/Historians

Shelves: military-studies

(+) Keegan was born in mid-twentieth century England? Well, I would buy it if he said he is an Immortal in "Highlander" movie
The precisions and details of his explanations on stages in which mankind involved in warfare are of advanced level.
This book proves to be a useful reference.

(-) Keegan really loves to use long sentences, solid with informations.
Not recomended for beginner.

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Mar 09, 2008

David rated it

I read after hearing Margaret Atwood talk about it in a lecture. It starts with the early theories about why societies started to attack each other. For resources, things haven't changed much. We kill for farmland, or better, for the harvest of the farmland, like we kill now for oil. Really depressing.

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About John Keegan

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.
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