Book Review: The Face of Battle
What is the meaning of a war? In my perspective, the image of a war is the images from movie, documentary, and pictures. Because I have not been in a battle like John Keegan, I have only objective images about a war. A war is only an interesting game to the 3rd person’s perspective. Because we can enjoy the process of war through TV news in these days, a war is more like a game than before. On the other hand, what the meaning of a war is to the soldiers who are in the battle field. Especially, to ancient soldiers who used a spear and shield, the meaning of a war might be different. For them, the image of a war might not be like a game and romantic movie. This book, the Face of Battle, gives vivid images of individual soldiers’ images of war. I was able to feel like in a battle with a normal private soldier, and shared the experiences of a battle field. This book does not explain a war with international situations, strategies, tactics, or political backgrounds. Instead, this book described detail psychological conditions of individual soldiers and specific situations in battle fields. Because of this reasons, I think, John Keegan has been called one of the greatest war historians in the world.
He presented his point of view to see a battle through the three battles: Agincourt (1415), Waterloo (1815), and the Somme (1916). His point of view about a battle was different from normal military historians. He escaped from the conventional ways of seeing a war. Conventionally, military historians have seen a war as conflicts between big units such as conflicts between a division versus division or a regiment versus regiment. On the contrary, Keegan saw a war as conflicts between archers versus infantry and cavalry, infantry versus infantry, cavalry versus cavalry, or artillery versus infantry. His point of view about a war is more detail and delicate than others. For example, in the Agincourt battle in which England and...