The Face of Battle
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The Face of Battle
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Narrated by:
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Simon Vance
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By:
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John Keegan
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.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 287
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 263
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 260
The year is 1918. German engineers have fortified Montfaucon, a rocky butte in Northern France, with bunkers, tunnels, trenches, and a top-secret observatory capable of directing artillery shells across the battlefield. Following a number of unsuccessful attacks, the French deem Montfaucon impregnable and dub it the Little Gibraltar of the Western Front. Capturing it is a key to success for AEF commander in chief John J. Pershing's 1.2 million troops.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Compelling narrative, meticulous research
- By JKW on 07-18-16
By: William Walker
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Three Armies on the Somme
- The First Battle of the Twentieth Century
- By: William Philpott
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 26 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4 out of 5 stars 77
On July 1, 1916, British and French forces launched the first attack on the German armies lined up along the Somme in what was to become the defining battle of World War I. To this day, July 1 is often remembered for being the bloodiest day in British military history. Indeed, the British suffered some 62,000 casualties in that one day of fighting alone. As gruesome as that statistic is, it's just one of the many dark legacies left by the Somme Offensive.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An insightful and exhaustive analysis of the Somme
- By Anthony on 06-07-12
By: William Philpott
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The Story of the Malakand Field Force
- By: Winston Churchill
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
In 1897, a young and untested cavalry lieutenant named Winston Churchill, more than a little keen to see action, got himself attached as a press correspondent to an expeditionary force newly formed to restore order on the North West Frontier of India. His dispatches to the London Daily Telegraph were later expanded into this audiobook.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another excellent entry from WSC.
- By J. Grzeskiewicz on 03-22-16
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Passchendaele
- Requiem for Doomed Youth
- By: Paul Ham
- Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 168
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 153
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Story5 out of 5 stars 154
From Paul Ham, winner of the NSW Premier's Prize for Australian History, comes the story of ordinary men in the grip of a political and military power struggle that determined their fate and has foreshadowed the destiny of the world for a century. Passchendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very compelling - good story, good narration
- By DPM on 11-25-16
By: Paul Ham
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The Somme
- The Darkest Hour on the Western Front
- By: Peter Hart
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 644
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 568
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 569
The Somme: these words conjure the image of war rigidly fought by traditional means even when catastrophe clearly loomed. Relying on personal testimonies never before published, this study of those who survived the first day of battle (July 1, 1916) captures this epic conflagration from all angles. Follow the action as soldiers crawl across No Man’s Land in the face of German guns, struggle with the conditions in the trenches, and survey the scene from the air as the RFC tries to control the skies above the battlefield.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Harrowing Story Badly Produced
- By Bob on 02-15-14
By: Peter Hart
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Devil of a Whipping
- The Battle of Cowpens
- By: Lawrence Babits
- Narrated by: Knighton Bliss
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 97
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 76
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
The battle of Cowpens was a crucial turning point in the Revolutionary War in the South and stands as perhaps the finest American tactical demonstration of the entire war. On January 17, 1781, Daniel Morgan's force of Continental troops and militia routed British regulars and Loyalists under the command of Banastre Tarleton. The victory at Cowpens helped put the British army on the road to the Yorktown surrender and, ultimately, cleared the way for American independence.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Don't forget the reference downloads!
- By Jeff on 01-22-10
By: Lawrence Babits
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Men of War
- The American Soldier in Combat at Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima
- By: Alexander Rose
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
In the grand tradition of John Keegan's enduring classic The Face of Battle comes a searing, unforgettable chronicle of war through the eyes of the American soldiers who fought in three of our most iconic battles: Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima. This is not a book about how great generals won their battles, nor is it a study in grand strategy. Men of War is instead a riveting, visceral, and astonishingly original look at ordinary soldiers under fire.
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5 out of 5 stars
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My Review
- By Jack OBrien on 04-22-16
By: Alexander Rose
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Waterloo
- The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles
- By: Bernard Cornwell
- Narrated by: Bernard Cornwell, Dugald Bruce Lockhart
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,028
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,723
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,711
From the New York Times best-selling author comes the definitive history of one of the greatest battles ever fought - a riveting nonfiction chronicle published to commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of Napoleon's last stand.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Not a close run thing!
- By carl801 on 05-13-15
By: Bernard Cornwell
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Verdun
- The Lost History of the Most Important Battle of World War I, 1914-1918
- By: John Mosier
- Narrated by: Wes Talbot
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 101
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 86
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Story4 out of 5 stars 88
Alongside Waterloo and Gettysburg, the Battle of Verdun during World War I stands as one of history’s greatest clashes. Yet it is also one of the most complex and misunderstood. Conventional wisdom holds that the battle began in February 1916 and lasted until December, when the victorious French wrested all the territory they had lost back from the Germans. In fact, says historian John Mosier, from the very beginning of the war until the armistice in 1918, no fewer than eight distinct battles were waged for the possession of Verdun.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A good book ruined by its reader
- By E. Keenan on 01-12-14
By: John Mosier
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Lee and His Men at Gettysburg
- The Death of a Nation
- By: Clifford Dowdey
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
In this sweeping account Clifford Dowdey recreates one of the most important battles in U.S. history. With vivid and breathtaking detail, Lee and His Men at Gettysburg is both a historical work and an honorary ode to the almost 50,000 soldiers who died at the fields of Pennsylvania. Written with an emphasis on the Confederate forces, the book captures the brilliance and frustration of a general forced to contend with overwhelming odds and in-competent subordinates.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Solid book
- By Scooter Reviews on 12-08-17
By: Clifford Dowdey
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Shiloh
- In Hell before Night
- By: James Lee Mcdonough
- Narrated by: Gary D. MacFadden
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
Colorful, dramatic, blundering, and tragic - these are some of the adjectives that have been applied to the two-day engagement at Shiloh. This battle, which bears the biblical name meaning “place of peace,” was one of the bloodiest encounters of the Civil War. The Union colonel, whose words give the present book its title, foretold the losses when he told his men: “Fill your canteens Boys! Some of you will be in hell before night….” Fought in the early spring of 1862 on the west bank of the Mississippi state line, Shiloh was, up to that time, the biggest battle of American history.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great book poorly read
- By M. O'Steen on 06-08-24
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The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume I, Fort Sumter to Perryville
- By: Shelby Foote
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 42 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,172
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,887
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,880
The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1 begins one of the most remarkable works of history ever fashioned. All the great battles are here, of course, from Bull Run through Shiloh, the Seven Days Battles, and Antietam, but so are the smaller ones: Ball's Bluff, Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, Island Ten, New Orleans, and Monitor versus Merrimac.
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5 out of 5 stars
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OUTSTANDING! I'M PROUD TO BE A BLACK AMERICAN!!
- By The Louligan on 08-22-13
By: Shelby Foote
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Kennesaw Mountain
- Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign
- By: Earl J. Hess
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 113
While fighting his way toward Atlanta, William T. Sherman encountered his biggest roadblock at Kennesaw Mountain, where Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee held a heavily fortified position. The opposing armies confronted each other from June 19 to July 3, 1864, and Sherman initially tried to outflank the Confederates. His men endured heavy rains, artillery duels, sniping, and a fierce battle at Kolb’s Farm before Sherman decided to attack Johnston’s position directly on June 27.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thorough and detailed.
- By MAC24211 on 09-06-20
By: Earl J. Hess
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Catastrophe 1914
- Europe Goes to War
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 25 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 140
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 130
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 128
From the acclaimed military historian, a new history of the outbreak of World War I: the dramatic stretch from the breakdown of diplomacy to the battles - the Marne, Ypres, Tannenberg - that marked the frenzied first year before the war bogged down in the trenches. In Catastrophe 1914, Max Hastings gives us a conflict different from the familiar one of barbed wire, mud, and futility.
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4 out of 5 stars
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I thought I knew the battle of the frontiers
- By Anonymous User on 04-02-21
By: Max Hastings
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Pickett's Charge
- A New Look at Gettysburg's Final Attack
- By: Phillip Thomas Tucker PhD
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 19 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 208
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
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Story4 out of 5 stars 191
Pickett's Charge is a detailed analysis of one of the most iconic and defining events in American history. This book presents a much-needed fresh look, including the unvarnished truths and ugly realities, about the unforgettable story. With the luxury of hindsight, historians have long denounced the folly of Lee's attack, but this work reveals the tactical brilliance of a master plan that went awry. Special emphasis is placed on the common soldiers on both sides, especially the non-Virginia attackers outside of Pickett's Virginia Division.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Worst CW book ever. Can't rate it low enough. It deserves negative 5 stars in all categories
- By rbergen on 05-10-18
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A History of Warfare
- By: John Keegan
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 19 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 348
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 221
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Story4 out of 5 stars 217
Starting with the premise that all civilizations owe their origins to warmaking, Keegan probes the meanings, motivations, and methods underlying war in different societies over the course of more than two thousand years. Following the progress of human aggression in its full historical sweep, from the strangely ritualistic combat of Stone Age peoples to the warfare of mass destruction in the present age, his illuminating and lively narrative gives us all the world's great warrior cultures.