John Keegan

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Sir John Keegan OBE (born 1934) is a British military historian, lecturer and journalist. As an author he has published a number of works ranging from coverage of 14th Century to 21st Century warfare in the domains of land, air, maritime and intelligence warfare and the psychology of conflict.

Contents 1 Life 2 Published work 3 Criticism 4 Bibliography 5 References

[edit] Life

Keegan was born in Clapham, the son of an Irish Catholic family, whose father served in the in First World War.

At the age of 13 Keegan contracted orthopedic tuberculosis which has subsequently affected his gait. This illness interrupted his education during his teenage years, however his education included two years at Wimbledon College leading to entry to Balliol College, Oxford in 1953. Following graduation he worked at the American Embassy in London for two years.

In 1960 he was appointed to a lectureship in Military History at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the training establishment for officers of the British Army. Holding the post for 26 years he became senior lecturer in military history during his tenure. During this period he also held visiting professorship at Princeton University and was Delmas Distinguished Professor of History at Vassar College, a visiting professorship.^[1]

Leaving the academy in 1986 Keegan joined the Daily Telegraph as a Defence Correspondent and remains with the publication as Defence Editor, also writing for the American conservative website, National Review Online.

In 1998 he wrote and presented the BBC's Reith Lectures, entitled War and Our World.

Keegan was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Gulf War honours list and later, in the Millennium honours list, he was knighted.

The long term effects of his Tuberculosis rendered him unfit for military service, mentioned in his works as an ironic observation on his profession and interest.^[2]

[edit] Published work

Keegan's books include a traditional battle-by-battle coverage of conflict, experience of the individual, historical causes of military events, technological change in warfare, military strategy and challenges of leaderships. He writes mainly for the educated non-specialist reader.

His work examines warfare throughout history, including human prehistory and the classical era, however the majority of his work concentrates on the 14th Century onwards to modern conflict of the 20th and 21st Centuries.

He has also contributed to work on historiography in modern conflict.

Frank C. Mahncke wrote that Keegan is seen as being "among the most prominent and widely read military historians of the late twentieth century".^[3] In a book-cover blurb extracted from a more complex article, Michael Howard wrote: at once the most readable and the most original of living historians.^[4]

[edit] Criticism

Keegan has also been criticised by peers, including Sir Michael Howard,^[5] Peter Paret^{[citation needed]} and Christopher Bassford.^[6] for his critical position on Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian officer and writer on military philosophy. Keegan is described as profoundly mistaken and Bassford states that Nothing anywhere in Keegan's work—despite his many diatribes about Clausewitz and 'the Clausewitzians'—reflects any reading whatsoever of Clausewitz's own writings.

[edit] Bibliography

• Barbarossa: Invasion of Russia, 1941 (New York, 1971) ISBN 0-345-02111-8
• Opening Moves: August 1914 (New York, 1971) ISBN 0-345-02341-2
• The Face of Battle (London, 1976) ISBN 0-670-30432-8
• Six Armies in Normandy (1982) ISBN 0-14-005293-3
• The Mask of Command (London, 1987) ISBN 0-7126-6526-9
• The Price of Admiralty (1988) ISBN 0-09-173771-0
• Who Was Who In World War II (1978) ISBN 0-85368-182-1
• The Second World War (Viking Press, 1990) ISBN 0-670-82359-7
• A History of Warfare (London, 1993) ISBN 0-679-73082-6
• Battle At Sea, From man-of-war to submarine (London ([1993]) ISBN 0-7126-5991-9
• The Battle for History: Refighting World War Two (Vintage), 1996) ISBN 0-679-76743-6
• Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America (1997) ISBN 0-679-74664-1
• War and Our World: The Reith Lectures 1998 (London: Pimlico, 1999) ISBN 0-375-70520-1
• The Book of War (ed.) (Viking Press, 1999) ISBN 0-670-88804-4
• The First World War (New York: Knopf, 1999) ISBN 0-375-40052-4
• Winston Churchill (2002) ISBN 0-670-03079-1
• Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda (2003) ISBN 0-375-40053-2
• The Iraq War (2004) ISBN 0-09-180018-8

[edit] References

1. ^ Back cover of The First World War - Keegan, John, ISBN 0-375-40052-4
2. ^ Interview (transcripted May 1994)
3. ^ Naval War College - Frank C. Mahncke, Naval War College
4. ^ The New York Times Book Review - Sir Michael Howard
5. ^ Michael Howard, "To the Ruthless Belong the Spoils," The New York Times Book Review, 14 November 1993.
6. ^ War in History, November 1994, pp.319-336, Christopher Bassford available at "Clausewitz.com

• Snowman, Daniel "John Keegan" page 28–30 from History Today, Volume 50, Issue # 5, May 2000.