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The Face of Battle

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The Face of Battle

By: John Keegan
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

In this major and wholly original contribution to military history, John Keegan reverses the usual convention of writing about war in terms of generals and nations in conflict, which tends to leave the common soldier as cipher. Instead, he focuses on what a set battle is like for the man in the thick of it—his fears, his wounds and their treatment, the mechanics of being taken prisoner, the nature of leadership at the most junior level, the role of compulsion in getting men to stand their ground, the intrusions of cruelty and compassion, the din and blood.

Set battles, with their unities of time and place, may be a thing of the past, but this anatomy of what they were like for the men who fought them is an unforgettable mirror held up to human nature.

©1976 John Keegan (P)2001 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Europe Medieval Military Military Science Western Europe War Imperialism

Critic Reviews

“The most brilliant evocation of military experience in our time.” (C. P. Snow, British novelist and scientist)

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Conflicting between entertaining & information.

A dry reading or perhaps writing style , yet bursting with quotable information ,fascinating. I feel like I just sat through a long lecture at uni.

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Obtuse

Just smacked a bit of pretension and I'm not left very clear what his point was.

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