# The First World War by John Keegan



## patrick666 (6 Sep 2005)

I was at the bookstore and made the impulse by of purchasing, "The First World War" by John Keegan, while trying to enlighten myself on the vague and nebulous knowledge I have of WW1. Has anyone read this and what were their thoughts...

Cheers


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## Danjanou (6 Sep 2005)

To be honest I haven't read this one (yet), but I've never been let down by a Keegan book in the past. Informative and always easy to read/understand.


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## Bruce Monkhouse (6 Sep 2005)

Patrick, I did a search on John Keegan and got some various hits in different threads, but not any whole threads. Give that a try and you might find it....


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## paracowboy (7 Sep 2005)

a soup label by Keegan is worth reading.


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## Danjanou (7 Sep 2005)

paracowboy said:
			
		

> a soup label by Keegan is worth reading.



Well not really, it all depends on the soup. I think his best work was in the broths. His cream soups were just sub par.


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## DG-41 (7 Sep 2005)

I'm another Keagan fan (although I found parts of the book on the battlefields of North America to be a bit gushy - he is an admitted Ameriphile and sometimes it really shows)

Well researched, well written, well presented.

DG


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## oyaguy (11 Sep 2005)

The First World War by John Keegan is probably the definitive general study of the First World War.

I can't read anything the remotely mentions the First World War without:
A) John Keegan's work being mentioned. This applies to his work in general.
B) Thinking what lazy thinking has gone into other authors work on WWI.

I'm currently re-reading How Great Generals Win by Bevin Alexander. He gives Sir Edmund Alleby and chapter and heralds him as an example of a WWI era general who avoided frontal assaults and prefered to mount flanking assaults. I found this supremely stupid as Alexander seemed to gloss over the difficulties in surmounting trench warfare on the Western Front.


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