A must have
Keegan stands alongside possibly only Sir Michael Howard as the collossus of post-WWII British military historians/analysts. Howard himself calls The Face of Battle, "one of the half-dozen best books on warfare to appear in the English language since the end of the Second World War". Keegan uses the direct experience of participants in the epochal battles of Agincourt, Waterloo and Somme to examine the physical conditions and the pychological characteristics of battle - noise, steel, mud, blood, killing, death, glory and fear.
Like all works by Keegan, there is much to debate and disagree about. His views and conclusions are often contestable. But then that is the mark of great history - small stuff to debate within an overall thesis of truth, all the while adding new perspective to old ideas.
Buy this and if you like it add, Soldiers and Mask of Command to your basket as well.
