The late John Keegan was a master stylist and a historian in full command of his subject. He has the gift of making complex subjects understandable and presenting them in a readable, even thrilling narrative.
I knew his gifts from his history of the Second World War. His ability to provide telling details without ever losing sight of the big picture. So, this is a very good place to start reading on World War I (as the Americans call it), or the First World War (the British), or the Great War (as it used to be known before there was an even more tragic one).
The causes of the war, to the extent that they are understandable, are well recapitulated, the fighting plans of the great powers are shown for what they are, theoretical castles in the air that make a lot of sense on paper but do not stand the test of reality.
The start of the war, the machinery that led Europe from one of the most pleasant and peaceful summers ever to unprecedented battefield deaths in a matter of weeks is explained in an inexorable manner. It is one of the highlights of the book.
Keegan calls our attention also to the role of technology. Until 1917, it favored the defense, contributing to the stalemate that almost led to the breakdown of entire societies. Then, in 1918, technological developments boosted the offensive and brought back the war of movement, leading to the final defeat of the Central Powers.
The author is right to stress the importance of naval warfare, and the key role of the naval blockade in subduing Germany and Austria-Hungary. He also gives the necessary space for us to understand the secondary theaters of the war, Africa, the Pacific and China, the Middle East and Mesopotamia. And, in Europe, both the Western and Eastern fronts are well covered, as is the Italian front. Keegan is a master and always makes the necessary interconnections, so we understand how a decision or a result in one front affects all the others.
Two minor caveats: Keegan is not entirely free from national bias and gives more attention to the British (and Imperial and Commonwealth) army than to any other. He is very good on the others as well, but in more than one occasion, we would have liked to know more about the planning and the thinking of the other armies in an operation where the British took part. The French, although fewer in number, played an important role during the Battle of the Somme and had even better results than the British. Also: is it really true that the French army remained immobile for almost a year after the 1917 mutinies? The book itself makes us think that this was not so, and yet this seems to be Keegan’s verdict.
I would have wanted a little more detail about 1918. There is mention to the different armies (in alphabetical order: American, British, French) of the Western Front but it is not always clear how much each of them contributed to the different successes. And there is a lot more that could be said about the successful Macedonian campaign led by French general Franchet d’Espérey, which led to the collapse of the Southern Front and contributed to the German acceptance of an armistice.
As I said, Keegan is slightly anglocentric. This does not mean he fails to respect valor. At times we can feel his emotion when describing some heroic action, as with the resistance of Sylvain Eugène Raynal, commander of the Fort Vaux during the battle of Verdun, who only surrendered when there was no more water left. The commander of the German forces, Crown Prince Wilhelm, met him in person and gave him a sword to replace the one he had lost during the battle.
For all this focus on Britain, Keegan tries to be fair. He acknowledges qualities in almost all major commanders (Luigi Cadorna excluded) of any army.
Maps are good, but few. I found it very useful to read this book with Martin Gilbert’s Atlas of the First World War close at hand.
All in all, a very good book, masterfully written. But I would complement it with other works that emphasize the role of the different belligerents. For France, perhaps the works of Michel Goya, or Robert A. Doughty, and for Germany and Austria-Hungary, Holger H. Herwig. There are also good works available in English about the role Italy played. I wish I knew histories of the Great War from the Russian and Turkish viewpoints, but I don’t.
Another very minor caveat. As in his History of the Second World War, John Keegan can get some minor details wrong. They don’t really distort the narrative but they are distracting. A good editor could get rid of these for future editions.
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Reviews with images
Keegan always does the job!
Anything Keegan wrote, I'll read. This book, like his "The Second World War", provides many insights that, speaking strictly for myself, had escaped me. Keegan is very, very good at synthesizing and putting in context disparate elements, creating in the process a tapestry that informs.
Top reviews from other countries
Michael Booth
A good History Book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2023