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The Face of Battle

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The Face of Battle

Written 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. Medieval Military Military Science Western Western Europe War Imperialism

What the critics say

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

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Best high level intro ever written.

Nothing that has happened in the last 40 years since this book was written invalidates it.

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