The First World War

Rating:
Summary: Well-written history
Review: I normally prefer great war novels like ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, or more recent gems like THE TRIUMPH AND THE GLORY, because fiction can be so powerfully effective in bringing the true horror of war home, and more positively, pay tribute to the selfless acts of courage and heroism that make was such a darkly fascinating topic for so many. But John Keegan is such a master historian, so richly gifted with talent, that I have read every one of his fine books. If you are interested in 20thCnetury history you must read THE FIRST WORLD WAR.

Rating:
Summary: Readable, insightful
Review: I love John Keegan, but I strongly believe that the most powerful portrayals of warfare are found in great novels like ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, THE BRIDGES OF TOKO-RI, or the new novel about the Second World War, THE TRIUMPH AND THE GLORY. Historians, even ones as gifted and talented as John Keegan, are hard pressed to hold the reader's interest, and The First World War suffers from the weakness of simply presenting facts. Keegan can make even the dullest facts come to life, stand up, and salute, if he puts his mind to it, but his heart apparently wasn't in this one all the way through.

Rating:
Summary: Good but not great
Review: I didn't learn much from John Keegan's The First World War. Keegan's book is well-written, and is better than many other surveys: for example, it includes considerably more information on the war in the East than others of its kind. If you've never read a book about the Great War, then I would recommend Keegan's. But The First World War offers little to the knowledgeable reader, and I found it dull. A lot of new research has been done on this conflict in the past two decades, but Keegan includes little of this new scholarship, and his notes and bibliography are disappointingly thin. Keegan's account of the Franco-British offensives on the Western Front in 1915, for example, relies heavily on the British Official History, published about seventy years ago, and G. C. Wynne's If Germany Attacks, published about sixty years ago. Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War has many flaws, but has a much fuller and more up-to-date bibliography, and offers more for the serious student of the Great War. Compared to the wild revisionism of The Pity of War, Keegan's book is very conventional and conservative. Perhaps the next general history of the First World War will find a happy medium between these two extremes.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Keegan remains the master of military history and this history of the Great War is very well done. Appropriate reading for novice and scholar, it offers a razor-sharp overview of the war and insightful commentary. A must for lovers of history and John Keegan's genius.

Rating:
Summary: Well done!
Review: John Keegan's latest book is another must read history tome by the master himself. While I prefer war novels such as The Triumph and the Glory, Cold Mountain, or The Killer Angels to nonfiction histories, Keegan's style is so readable I always make an exception for him. The First World War is an excellent book by a world class military historian.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Keegans new book is an excellent read. The vast knowledge of the writer is quite evident. There were a couple of areas, however, which could have used some improvement. The maps were too infrequent and the first two chapters can be quite tedious. These were the only details which kept me from rating this book as "five stars".

Rating:
Summary: A massive disappointment
Review: John Keegan has written military histories that transcend the genre, giving a reader insight into how technology and social and economic forces have shaped the face and outcomes of battle over the millenia. This ain't one of them. The first 50 pages is a traditional and readable account of the beginnings of WW I. While I disagree with Prof. Keegan's premise that WW I could have been averted by better communication, the beginning was at least interesting. The book thereafter degenerates into the minutiae of troop movements, offering little insight and no maps to help the reader follow what Keegan is talking about. I expected more from this master and was greatly disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: The best single volume history of World War I written to dat
Review: Keegan has written the best single volume account of the Great War I've read. The book documents the great disaster it was for all concerned, and that the seeds of World War II were sown in the minds of one loser and one winner, both front line soldiers in the conflict, Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Keegan also shows how advances in the technology of killing, e.g., indirect artillery fire, magazine rifles, and machine guns, but lack of progress in another area, radio/telephone, and armored self propelled vehicles, led to the great slaughters at Verdun, the Somme, Passendaele, etc., that seem so pointless. He also points out the endurance principle that led to mutinies in the French Army, revolution in Russia, and chaos in Germany. When the proportion of young men killed reaches a certain level without victory then the army will chose to stop fighting. The book is a marvelous read.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Well Written Account of WWI
Review: Once again John Keegan has produced another well written and researched book to add to his growing number of titles. This is an excellent one volume account of the Great War which the novice or experienced reader will enjoy. I found the first few chapters a bit dry but once the author moved into the sections covering the fighting the book moved along smartly.

The author covers all theatres of the war and covered those naval and aviation aspects that had bearing on the war as a whole. There were a number of excellent general maps and numerous black & white photographs to assist the reader to follow the narrative.

Overall a great book to read and well worth the time to sit down and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Well-Written History
Review: John Keegan has managed to write this book, covering the whole of the First World War, and he has done it well. As other reviewers have said, this history is not radical or vastly different but it is very clear. Managing to convey the horror of the war whilst remaining impartial and focused is no easy matter. Here, Keegan has managed to do this.

I definately recomend it.