The First World War

Customer Reviews

• A readable text book!  Dec 13, 2000 (40 of 41 found this helpful)

  Keegan does it well! This book illuminates the war to end all wars and captures the sweep of the first global conflict. Keegan details the primary causes and the primary instigators of the conflict. You really come to understand how about 15 individuals and a lot of national pride led to the deaths of millions. While not a truly "modern" war, many of the instruments of death were well hoaned (e.g. the rifle, the machine gun and artillery). This book describes the horror of trench warfare, details the attacks and defenses, the general's attempts to break the stalemate, the mathematics of attrition, the political motivations, and most importantly, the effect on nations that established the groundwork for the second world war. No modern history, military history, or the 20th century history collection is complete with out a text such as this! Keegans book is dense and detailed, well researched, and yet understandable and a pleasure to read!

• military history with compassion and sans political bias  Jan 18, 2003 (28 of 28 found this helpful)

  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.

• Good for what it is  Jul 23, 2006 (33 of 34 found this helpful)

  As a one-volume narrative outlining the major events of the First World War, this book succeeds. It is a great introduction to the war. I wish, however, to state my reservations about the book.
  
  One oddity is that the first three chapters cover the events leading to the war, but the last chapter ends abruptly with the armistice. It would have been nice to have a chapter on the Treaty of Versailles.
  
  The book incorporates two previously published articles, as the acknowledgements acknowledge. This leads to the repetition of certain data, as it appears that they were not sufficiently edited to fit in with the rest of the book.
  
  Keegan is British, and it is obvious. He emphasizes repeatedly how the British army was never defeated by the Germans except in one campaign. The Australians are praised as the world's greatest soldiers without further elaboration. He explicitly blames Germany's naval construction campaign preceding the war for the war itself, presumably because it challenged Britain's benign supremacy. The deaths of British soldiers are lamented with poignancy that overflows into sentimentality.
  
  To be fair, the book was written for a British audience, and these excesses are much more modest than they might have been. Keegan seems to have tried hard to be evenhanded, and these excesses are largely superficial and forgivable.
  
  Lastly, Keegan admits that this book does not break new ground. A glance at the endnotes reveals that most of the material from this book was taken from secondary sources. Each chapter seems to have come from three or so books. Thus, this is not a work of history so much as a gloss on history written by others.

• Good Comprehensive History  Mar 27, 2000 (40 of 45 found this helpful)

  Keegan does a fine job of illustrating the conflict of WW1 with strokes that are wide enough to give 'the big picture' clarity while also delving into several campaigns and stories that will give the reader some intimate knowledge of the subject. His book was used as a text in a college level history course, which is where I read it, and helped a great deal.

  The accounts of lesser know theaters of conflict are certainly some of the book's high points. My favorite section was a the German, Paul Lettow von Vorbeck, who was in charge of the German forces in German East Africa. Keegan describes how Vorbeck waged a guerrilla war against English forces for the duration of the war. It is great reading. There are other chapters equally insightfull.

  Overall, the Keegan rarely becomes traped in the minutia of detail, though at times the various armies, regiments, battalions, and dates can become a bit thick. This is a book that needs about one or two days inbetween chapters for thought fermentation. You need to let it all sink in before moving on, otherwise the details slip away.

  I highly recomend this book to anyone who knows little about WW1 and wishes to learn more- or, like myself, someone who thought that they knew most of what there was to know (and was wrong).

  Professors everywhere: get books like this one for classes, they are better than texts, cheaper, and more enjoyable to read! Plus, we students will learn more in return.

• Good Narrative, No Maps  Dec 9, 1999 (29 of 32 found this helpful)

  In my mind a comprehensive, factual explanation of the military aspects of The Great War. Keegan does not dwell excessively on the political aspects that contributed to the conflict, but he correctly points out that it need not have happened, and that the combatants were woefully unprepared to prosecute such a war. I would give it more stars, but for the glaring absence of adequate maps.