New Releases by John Keegan

Military history and geography explain each other in North America as nowhere else in the world. Award-winning historian John Keegan explores their relationship and examines the battles fought over three centuries between Frenchman and Indian, Royalist and colonist, Union and Confederacy, offering compelling profiles of both the land and military leaders, alongside historical events. Combining rigorous research and insightful analysis with personal experiences and reflections, all in lean and lively prose, Warpaths is a rich and engaging work of military literature.

Con su habitual perspicacia sobre el complicado mundo bélico y su gran capacidad de narrador, Keegan teje un relato lleno de ritmo sobre los medios que han empleado los grandes estrategas de la historia para identificar las debilidades, las intenciones o las tácticas de sus enemigos. En ocho capítulos que se leen como ocho mini-novelas, el autor analiza las claves de algunos de los enfrentamientos más famosos de todos los tiempos y el papel que desarrolló la información, para bien o para mal, en cada uno de ellos. Julio César, el almirante Nelson, Napoleón, Stonewall Jackson o Churchill aparecen en estas páginas inmersos en las complicadas decisiones tácticas de sus grandes batallas, para acabar con un relato especialmente interesante para el lector de habla hispana: el análisis de la guerra de las Malvinas en 1982. Profusamente ilustrado con mapas y gráficos, y documentado con un impresionante despliegue bibliográfico de primera mano, este libro apasionará a los interesados en la historia y ayudará a poner en perspectiva el uso actual de la información en la lucha antiterrorista.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The definitive account of the Great War from one of our most eminent military historians. "Elegantly written, clear, detailed, and omniscient.... Keegan is...perhaps the best military historian of our day." —The New York Times Book Review The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the twentieth century as mechanized warfare and mass death. It also helped to usher in the ideas that have shaped our times—modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, radical thoughts about economics and society—and in so doing shattered the faith in rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment. The First World War probes the mystery of how a civilization at the height of its achievement could have propelled itself into such a ruinous conflict and takes us behind the scenes of the negotiations among Europe''s crowned heads (all of them related to one another by blood) and ministers, and their doomed efforts to defuse the crisis. Keegan reveals how, by an astonishing failure of diplomacy and communication, a bilateral dispute grew to engulf an entire continent. But the heart of Keegan''s superb narrative is, of course, his analysis of the military conflict. With unequalled authority and insight, he recreates the nightmarish engagements whose names have become legend—Verdun, the Somme and Gallipoli among them—and sheds new light on the strategies and tactics employed, particularly the contributions of geography and technology. No less central to Keegan''s account is the human aspect. He acquaints us with the thoughts of the intriguing personalities who oversaw the tragically unnecessary catastrophe—from heads of state like Russia''s hapless tsar, Nicholas II, to renowned warmakers such as Haig, Hindenburg and Joffre. But Keegan reserves his most affecting personal sympathy for those whose individual efforts history has not recorded—"the anonymous millions, indistinguishably drab, undifferentially deprived of any scrap of the glories that by tradition made the life of the man-at-arms tolerable." By the end of the war, three great empires—the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian and the Ottoman—had collapsed. But as Keegan shows, the devastation ex-tended over the entirety of Europe, and still profoundly informs the politics and culture of the continent today. His brilliant, panoramic account of this vast and terrible conflict is destined to take its place among the classics of world history.

At once a grand tour of the battlefields of North America and an unabashedly personal tribute to the military prowess of an essentially unwarlike people. • "[A] magisterial narrative history, enriched by an authorial voice."--The Washington Post Fields of Battle spans more than two centuries and the expanse of a continent to show how the immense spaces of North America shaped the wars that were fought on its soil.

John Keegan has assembled a cast of seventeen generals whose reputations were made (and some of them broken) by Churchill and the Second World War. Churchill''s reputation as prime minister during the Second World War fluctuated according to the successes and failures of his generals. Most of them were household names, and often heroes, during the war years. All of them were prey to the intolerance, interference, irascibility - and the inspiration - of the man who wanted to be both the general in the field and the presiding strategic genius. He sacked his warlords ruthlessly, yet in the end he came to be served by perhaps the greatest generals this country has ever produced. Includes chapters on Wavell, Ironside, Ritchie, Auchinleck, Montgomery, Alexander, Percival, Wingate, Slim and Carton de Wiart. Note: The Publisher regrets that the biographical note for Gary Sheffield is incorrect in the book. Please refer to the Orion website (www.orionbooks.co.uk) for the correct version.

La historia definitiva de la guerra de Secesión, narrada por el decano de los historiadores británicos. Una historia militar de primera clase, unida a una narrativa vívida y apasionante. Imprescindible para lectores de narrativa bélica, pero también de historia internacional, por el análisis en profundidad de este conflicto que dio pie al nacimiento de Estados Unidos como superpotencia. El autor ha sido profesor en la academia militar británica de Sandhurst, y en las universidades de Harvard y Cambridge.

Anatomie de la bataille de John Keegan est un ouvrage de référence dans le monde anglo-saxon. Loin, comme ses prédécesseurs, de décrire la bataille telle qu''elle est jaugée d''en haut par l''état-major, Keegan la restitue telle qu''elle est vécue par les hommes de troupe qui la mène sur le terrain. Il ausculte donc l''homme au combat à travers trois batailles emblématiques. Celle d''Azincourt (1415), qui représente l''un des épisodes les plus épiques et les plus vivants de l''histoire anglaise. C''est l''écrasante victoire des fantassins anglais contre la chevalerie française, celle d''une troupe d''exilés sur des seigneurs trop confiants. Keegan s''attache ensuite à démystifier la bataille de Waterloo (1815), longtemps abandonnée aux romanciers et aux peintres. Enfin, il revient sur l''une des confrontations les plus sanglantes de la Première Guerre mondiale, la bataille de la Somme (1916), pendant laquelle les forces britanniques et françaises tentèrent de percer à travers les lignes allemandes : il s''attarde sur la souffrance de ces soldats, terrés dans une guerre de tranchées, soumis à d''effroyables pilonnages avant de se lancer dans des assauts atrocement meurtriers. John Keegan nous montre ainsi l''évolution du soldat à travers les siècles, son appréhension du champ de bataille et des technologies de la guerre, la peur et les souffrances rencontrées et à quoi tient la perception de la victoire ou de la défaite sur le terrain.

The greatest military historian of our time gives a peerless account of America’s most bloody, wrenching, and eternally fascinating war. In this magesterial history and national bestseller, John Keegan shares his original and perceptive insights into the psychology, ideology, demographics, and economics of the American Civil War. Illuminated by Keegan’s knowledge of military history he provides a fascinating look at how command and the slow evolution of its strategic logic influenced the course of the war. Above all, The American Civil War gives an intriguing account of how the scope of the conflict combined with American geography to present a uniquely complex and challenging battle space. Irresistibly written and incisive in its analysis, this is an indispensable account of America’s greatest conflict.

The 2003 Iraq war remains among the most mysterious armed conflicts of modernity. In The Iraq War, John Keegan offers a sharp and lucid appraisal of the military campaign, explaining just how the coalition forces defeated an Iraqi army twice its size and addressing such questions as whether Saddam Hussein ever possessed weapons of mass destruction and how it is possible to fight a war that is not, by any conventional measure, a war at all. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Donald Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks, Keegan retraces the steps that led to the showdown in Iraq, from the highlights of Hussein’s murderous rule to the diplomatic crossfire that preceded the invasion. His account of the combat in the desert is unparalleled in its grasp of strategy and tactics. The result is an urgently needed and up-to-date book that adds immeasurably to our understanding of those twenty-one days of war and their long, uncertain aftermath.

Discover the days of the Great Depression, World War II and the post-war years through the eyes and ears of a young Irish-American Catholic boy who grew up in Jersey city, New Jersey. Young boys always have many childhood adventures in sports and neighborhood games. John is able to share his life and relationships with you. His friends and foes come to life, in particular, his memories of his first close friend, Phyllis. The story also tells about the neighborhood heroes who were killed during World War II, and it describes some of the key battles of the war. As the story unfolds, we find that young John depended on his Irish immigrant parents for love and guidance, and they were always there when he needed them.

A masterly look at the value and limitations of intelligence in the conduct of war from the premier military historian of our time, John Keegan. Intelligence gathering is an immensely complicated and vulnerable endeavor. And it often fails. Until the invention of the telegraph and radio, information often traveled no faster than a horse could ride, yet intelligence helped defeat Napoleon. In the twentieth century, photo analysts didn’t recognize Germany’s V-2 rockets for what they were; on the other hand, intelligence helped lead to victory over the Japanese at Midway. In Intelligence in War, John Keegan illustrates that only when paired with force has military intelligence been an effective tool, as it may one day be in besting al-Qaeda.

Standaardwerk over de aanloop naar en het verloop van de Eerste Wereldoorlog.

Namads at war, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Mongols, The Arabs, Turks, the Vikings includes Maps, Chronology of events.

Looks at the development of military art and science during the Renaissance and the impact of these changes not only on the nature of war but also on history.

This highly illustrated book narrates the rise, astonishing success and eventual downfall of Napoleon and focuses on the conduct of the Napoleonic Wars, the twelve years from 1803 to 1815.

Why did Japan instigate an encounter with the only nation--the United States--capable of defeating her? This illuminating record explains why, as well as the crucial shifts in naval power and strategy that occurred as World War Two progressed. Set off on the road to war, analyzing the effects of WWI; Japan''s policies in China; the first victories, as Japan surged through Asia; the great battles of Midway and Guadalcanal; and the final, devastating launch of the first nuclear weapons.