The First World War

Rating:
Summary: military history with compassion and sans political bias
Review: John Keegan' "The First World War" is one of those rare books which combine the thoroughly researched descriptions of history, technology and means of warfare with nuances of psychology and mystery of the Great War. Keegan starts with the overview of diplomatic positions of the Great powers involved in the war (although his analysis of origins is on his own admission is just a summary of prior work), then proceeds to the breakout of the conflict. In subsequent chapters Keegan covers every year of the Great War on the Western, Eastern, Middle Eastern, Italian and Mediterranean theatres of war in a thorough and scholarly fashion. Very soon a pattern emerges - a static trench warfare on the Western front, in-conclusive war of movement on the Eastern front with untold unaccounted casualties, diversionary operations on the secondary theatres costing significant resource drain, and pointless war of heroics, despotism and bravery on the Italian front.

What I like particularly about the book is the analysis of military strategy and tactics of the main participant in the manner which somebody without training in military science can easily comprehend. Keegan points out how lack of communication, rigid bureaucratic organization and the lack of appreciation of the tactical variability of the war caused British failures to command a decision at Somme in 1916 and Ypres and Flanders in 1917; how ill-prepared was French army for defensive operations due to its romantic "esprit de corpes"; how Russian lack of coordination, material supply and organization lead to horrendous losses on the Western front. Germans came out as good fighters, allowing their field commanders high degree of freedom, yet weak strategically, unable to concentrate the efforts on a single point of the decisive breakthrough. Keegan touches on the naval warfare as well, specifically Jutland, but since navy in the Great war played mostly static positional role, he does not spend much time there.

Overall, I found his book fair and non-biased; essentially without any political agenda. Keegan is more interested in uncovering the mystery of the war as the source of human suffering, then finding a particular side to blame. To this degree this is a rare book.

Rating:
Summary: Definitive work with a few minor flaws
Review: The First World War is a military history of the various campaigns that comprised World War One, written from a largely British perspective. This is to be expected, given that the author served as the senior lecturer in military history at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. His analytic perspective lends a classic air to a genre that in modern times seems to focus more on the individual soldier and less on the sweeping themes of a war. The book is both informative and incisive, and should be read by those who have not gained more than a cursory knowledge of the Great War.

The book is organized chronologically, with some years separated into separate chapters by theater. The reader is thus led to an understanding of the strategic considerations that led to the decisions made, even when the results were tragically unexpected. In fact, Keegan's main thrust seems to be on the futility of the war itself, accomplishing little except wholesale slaughter, as well as on the mysteries accompanying World War One. That is, not how was the war conducted, but why?

The opening year of the war, 1914, is treated with the most depth. Chapters 1-3 cover the preliminaries and the opening stages of the war. Chapter 4 covers the war of movement on the Western Front, one of the few times on that front when static trench warfare was not the rule of the day. Chapter 5 covers the same time period on the Eastern Front. The coverage of 1915 is split between Chapter 6, discussing entrenchment, and Chapter 7, discussing the war in the South and East, various colonies, and Gallipoli. Keegan then runs quickly through 1916 in Chapter 8, where he examines the battles of Jutland, the Somme, Verdun, and Brusilov. Similarly, 1917 is covered rather quickly in Chapter 9 with a review of war weariness, the Russian Revolution, and the US' entry into the war. Chapter 10 ties it all together, describing the (temporary) end of the war.

The style is a bit dry, but then that should be expected from a work of this sort. The First World War is relatively heavy reading, requiring more thought and engagement from the reader than typical popular history. Occasionally, he makes assumptions about the reader's level of knowledge that, in this reviewer's experience, were set a tad high. For example, there is quite a bit of mention made of the Teutonic knights and the tradition that the Prussian army inherited, but many readers will not be as familiar with the Teutons as the author seems to expect. The maps are often inadequate and leave the reader wondering just how to visualize the geographic progression of a campaign, though the maps that are included were laid out nicely. The motivated reader, however, will gain much from the book, and Keegan's organization is quite logical. He has an excellent understanding of the flow of military operations, and the book overall tastes of a treatise on military strategy. Of course, factual notes are well supported, and the bibliography is practically a definitive summary of the best analysis and knowledge regarding the war.

Personally, this reviewer gained much from the book, and it's recommended as a fine overview of the war to anyone who's interested enough in the subject to give it the time and attention it deserves. It may not be an easy read, but the payoff is worth the investment.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reading !!
Review: A detailed history book on WW I , from military affairs and
battles , to personalities related to the events .In my oppinion,
the history afficinonados will appreciate this book.

Rating:
Summary: An adequate history of the Great War
Review: Prof. John Keegan has written a general history of the Great War.

Keegan has a writing style that favors odd sentence structure over clarity. He doesn't always succeed in a coherent integrated presentation of strategy, operations, or tactics and leaves out much that is important. As a writer of many popular military histories- but certainly not a hack- it's surprising that so much of his work varies greatly in quality from the excellent "Face of Battle" to lesser works.

The First World War has much to commend and as much to criticize. Keegan does a good job at presenting the global aspects of this essentially European war. I enjoyed his discussion of the German navy's exploits in the Pacific theater and the efforts to hunt down their ships.

Several times in the book individuals appear-briefly- and then disappear without an explaination. Belgian King Albert is touted as a brave man of honor in one paragraph, then two pages later disappears completely from the narrative. Not a sentence given to explain his leadership of the Belgian army in exile or its triumphant return, surprising in light of his extolling of Albert just a few pages earlier.

On another occassion Keegan mentions, but fails to explain, the British New Army; its difference from the profession British army and the contempt the "regulars" held for them. An extremely important matter because one of the reasons for the high casualties in early years was Haig's staff opinion that the New Army recruits wouldn't be able to conduct attacks under cover of rolling barrages or learn assault tactics. Instead he spends time discussing the fighting qualities of a handful of Indian divisions while ignoring the larger issue of the New Army's place in the culture of the professional leadership.

Curiously, Keegan barely addresses the development of new military technologies such tanks and aircraft (he does write much on gas technology). Little or no time is spent discussing their development, tactical theories of deployment or improvements in training and design.

Most glaring of all is what seems like an apologia for the high command and the brutal slaughter of millions of soldiers. Those in the trenches, commanders and soldiers at platoon, company and battalion level knew the futility of the tactics being used.

These are but a few examples of the problems with this book. It appeals to popular readership, but those more knowledgable about the Great War will be disappointed. Keegan has written better than this.

Rating:
Summary: Military History by a Military Historian
Review: Keegan is British. Unlike his Second World War, he not only relates the events of the conflict, he digs into the characters and voices opinions on the futility of the whole First World War. So many soldiers died for so little reason. He clearly imparts the pointlessness, much like one gets from reading All Quiet on the Western Front.

The telling of events is excellent through to the last chapter, then he winds everything up in about 20 pages, almost as if he was tired of the whole topic. There is material enough for 2-3 more chapters in the last 6-12 months of the war, but Keegan skims over the last offensives, relegates the American involvement to a footnote and leaves discussion of the aftermath to books on the Second World War.

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Summary: The Decline of the Western World Begins Here
Review: Keegan once again proves why he is one of the greatest military historians of the last fifty years. In a single volume, Mr. Keegan has described how the Western World committed suicide on a grand scale and as a result, changed the world forever. For anyone who wants to understand what happened during the First World War, this is the book to read.

Rating:
Summary: Not Keegan at his best
Review: Keegan's WWI book is disappointing. There is an abundance of narrative factual information, but not much analysis of tactics, strategies, or politics. This book can serve well as an introduction to the details of the war, but is in no way even close to being definitive.

Rating:
Summary: dissapointed
Review: This book misses its point. It's written in a novel style rather then in style of documentary prose like it should be. There is also a lack of exact informations and I expected more maps, more dates, names, weapon-types...At some spots a little bit confusing too.

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Summary: First lucid and complete narrative of WHY WW1 happened
Review: I find that it is very difficult to find any comprehensive books on the 1st world war. This is the first book I have found that gave me a good understanding of that first terrible period of the last century. Keegan is both knowledgeable and an extremely good writer. He manages to weave both and emotional testament of the times (as much as one not actually IN the battles can do) and give a concise and lucid description of why the stalemate on the wester front. This is a must for all those interested in the 20th century, but even more so for those interested in understanding how that war got to be a world war and how it affected two to three whole generations.

Rating:
Summary: Good but not great.
Review: I had to read this for school and I found that it was informative but dull. Helpful for learning but not enjoyable.