John Keegan
|
|
Sir John Keegan (born 1934) is an English military historian specializing in 20th-century wars.
Keegan was born in Clapham, the son of Irish Catholics. He was educated at Wimbledon College for two years, then entered Balliol College, Oxford in 1953. He worked at the American Embassy in London for two years.
In 1960 he was appointed to a lectureship at Sandhurst, a post he held for 26 years. In 1986 he moved to the Daily Telegraph to take up the post of Defence Correspondent.
In 1998 he wrote and presented the BBC's Reith Lectures, entitled War and Our World.
He was knighted in 2000.
Frank C. Mahncke, a US defense analyst writing for the Naval War College, says of Keegan, "He is among the most prominent and widely read military historians of the late twentieth century" [1] (http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/Review/2000/spring/br13-sp0.htm).
Keegan is admired for his ability to go beyond the traditional content of military history in search of a deeper understanding of war. His works treat the experience of the individual soldier, the historical causes of military events, the role of technological change in warfare, and the choices and dilemmas faced by military leaders. Like many historians, Keegan became embroiled in the David Irving controversy, and was criticized for some comments which seemed pro-Irving. Keegan praised Irving's ability to research, but also criticized Irving's distortions and thought certain of his ideas "perverse."
Despite being a military historian and lecturer, Keegan has never been in the military or seen combat himself due to childhood illness, an irony he discusses in the introduction of a number of his works.
Books
- The Face of Battle (London, 1976) ISBN 00670304328
- Six Armies in Normandy (1982) ISBN 0140052933
- The Mask of Command (London, 1987) ISBN 0712665269
- The Price of Admiralty (1988) ISBN 0091737710
- The Second World War (Viking Press, 1990) ISBN 0670823597
- A History of Warfare (London, 1993) ISBN 0679730826
- Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America (1997) ISBN 0679746641
- War and Our World: The Reith Lectures 1998 (London: Pimlico, 1999) ISBN 0375705201
- The Book of War (ed.) (Viking Press, 1999) ISBN 0670888044
- The First World War (New York: Knopf, 1999) ISBN 0375400524
- Winston Churchill (2002) ISBN 0670030791
- Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda (2003) ISBN 0375400532
- The Iraq War (2004) ISBN 0091800188
External link
- History Today interview with John Keegan (http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1373/5_50/62087850/print.jhtml)