The First World War

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. First American Edition. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very Good/Very good. 25 cm xvi, 475 pages. Illustrations. Maps. Endpaper maps. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Signed by the author on the title page. Minor endpaper soiling. Minor edge soiling. Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan OBE FRSL (15 May 1934 - 2 August 2012) was an English military historian, lecturer, writer and journalist. He wrote many published works on the nature of combat between prehistory and the 21st century, covering land, air, maritime, intelligence warfare and the psychology of battle. Keegan studied at Balliol College, Oxford in 1953, where he read history with an emphasis on war theory. After graduation he worked at the American Embassy in London for three years. In 1960 Keegan took up a lectureship in military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which trains officers for the British Army. He remained for 26 years, becoming a senior lecturer in military history during his tenure, during which he also held a visiting professorship at Princeton University and was Delmas Distinguished Professor of History at Vassar College. Leaving the academy in 1986, Keegan joined the Daily Telegraph as a defence correspondent and stayed with the paper as defence editor until his death. He also wrote for the American conservative National Review Online. In 1998 he wrote and presented the BBC's Reith Lectures, entitling them War in our World. In this study of World War I, the author presents the military conflict, and the battles on land, sea, and in the air, as well as interpretations of military events. He also shows how the war acted as an engine for social change. Derived from a Kirkus review: In this sterling account of the tragic conflict that inaugurated a century of horror, British military historian Keegan ranges from Olympian assessments of leaders to searing depictions of suffering common soldiers. The shattering effects of the "war to end all wars" have been depicted unforgettably by novelists and poets such as Hemingway and Remarque, but seldom so memorably by historians. Keegan remedies that with a traditional strategy-and-tactics study that is also informed by deep personal feeling for the subject (his father, two uncles, and father-in-law all served and survived). He consistently underscores the war's body blow to civilization, noting not only its staggering casualty rates but the chaos that gave rise to totalitarianism afterward. Keegan's versatility is evident on every page. He excels equally in explaining how the best-laid strategies went awry, in measuring commanders" strengths and weaknesses, and in discussing how technology had not yet developed enough to enable effective communications between the front and the rear in battle. He points out the unusual tragedies resulting from the war, such as secluded rural establishments where disfigured veterans could take holidays together, as well as its numerous ironic consequences. He renders all of this in somber prose that often rises to eloquence. A narrative that yields insight at every turn on this near-endless stalemate, as well as serving as an object lesson on the dark mysteries that await even those best-prepared for war.