The Face of Battle A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme

by Keegan, John

• ISBN13: 9780140048971
• ISBN10: 0140048979
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1983-01-27
• Publisher: Penguin Books

Summary

The Face of Battle is military history from the battlefield: a look at the direct experience of individuals at the "point of maximum danger." Without the myth-making elements of rhetoric and xenophobia, and breaking away from the stylized format of battle descriptions, John Keegan has written what is probably the definitive model for military historians. And in his scrupulous reassessment of three battles representative of three different time periods, he manages to convey what the experience of combat meant for the participants, whether they were facing the arrow cloud of Agincourt, the musket balls at Waterloo, or the steel rain of the Somme.

Author Biography

Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan (1934–2012), was one of the most distinguished contemporary military historians and was for many years the senior lecturer at Sandhurst (the British Royal Military Academy) and the defense editor of the Daily Telegraph (London). Keegan was the author of numerous books including The Face of Battle, The Mask of Command, The Price of Admiralty, Six Armies in Normandy, and The Second World War, and was a fellow at the Royal Society of Literature.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	11	(13)
Old, Unhappy, Far-of Things	13	(65)
A Little Learning	13	(7)
The Usefulness of Military History	20	(5)
The Deficiencies of Military History	25	(10)
The `Battle Piece'	35	(10)
`Killing No Murder?'	45	(8)
The History of Military History	53	(8)
The Narrative Tradition	61	(11)
Verdict or Truth?'	72	(6)
Agincourt, 25 October 1415	78	(39)
The Campaign	78	(8)
The Battle	86	(6)
Archers versus Infantry and Cavalry	92	(2)
Cavalry versus Infantry	94	(3)
Infantry versus Infantry	97	(11)
The Killing of the Prisoners	108	(4)
The Wounded	112	(2)
The Will to Combat	114	(3)
Waterloo, 18 June 1815	117	(90)
The Campaign	121	(7)
The Personal Angle of Vision	128	(6)
The Physical Circumstances of Battle	134	(10)
Categories of Combat	144	(1)
Single Combat	145	(2)
Cavalry versus Cavalry	147	(4)
Cavalry versus Artillery	151	(3)
Cavalry versus Infantry	154	(6)
Artillery versus Infantry	160	(2)
Infantry versus Infantry	162	(33)
Disintegration	195	(2)
Aftermath	197	(3)
The Wounded	200	(7)
The Somme, 1 July 1916	207	(83)
The Battlefield	207	(6)
The Plan	213	(3)
The Preparations	216	(3)
The Army	219	(10)
The Tactics	229	(2)
The Bombardment	231	(10)
The Final Preliminaries	241	(5)
The Battle	246	(1)
Infantry versus Machine-Gunners	247	(4)
Infantry versus Infantry	251	(8)
The View from across No-Man's-land	259	(9)
The Wounded	268	(6)
The Will to Combat	274	(11)
Commemoration	285	(5)
The Future of Battle	290	(55)
The Moving Battlefield	290	(11)
The Nature of Battle	301	(2)
The Trend of Battle	303	(17)
The Inhuman Face of War	320	(11)
The Abolition of Battle	331	(14)
Bibliography	345	(6)
Index	351