Keegan discusses
early warfare, the proliferation of
Bronze Age warfare and then
Iron Age warfare (
Greek hoplites and
phalanxes,
Roman legions and
maniples). He also talks about the conquests of the "
horse peoples", first under the
Assyrians, then the
Achaemenids,
Parthians and
Sassanids; then in the 7th century the
Arabs conquer a lot of territory, followed by the
Mongols under
Genghis Khan and finally the last of the horse peoples under a Mongol named
Tamerlane, who unleashes massive carnage and destruction. The rise of
medieval Europe causes the raising of money for
castles, with
infantry being paid to dig under castles for their destruction.
Western Europe perfects castles that are impregnable. At the same time,
cavalry is gradually eliminated from the battlefield;
matchlocks,
flintlocks and eventually
Smith & Wesson revolvers become dominant (they help
Japan win the
Russo-Japanese War). In
World War I,
mustard gas,
grenades,
artillery and
guns kill a massive number of
soldiers that are buried in muddy graveyards on the
Western Front. In
World War II, millions die on the
Eastern Front because of
Adolf Hitler's theories of living space (
Lebensraum). Keegan takes issue with
Carl von Clausewitz's idea that war is an extension of politics, implying that war is carried on in a rational way under the conscious control of politicians. Rather he sees the existence of armies and warriors as distorting the nature of politics and of culture, sometimes becoming the dominant cultural form and that war itself is ultimately a disastrous and irrational outcome of a failure of politics and diplomacy. His book is less concerned with the technology and lists of battles than with the underlying motivations and
social anthropology of the same. Keegan dedicates his book to an ancestor, a Lieutenant Bridgman in the Régiment de Clare, one of the Wild Geese mercenaries of the French Army, who was killed at the
Battle of Lauffeld in 1747. ==Reception==