The First World War

John Keegan was one of the most prominent British military historians of the 20th and early 21st centuries. As a child, Keegan had dreamed of being a soldier, joining in a long line of veterans in his family, but he contracted tuberculosis and was rendered physically unfit for service. After working as a reporter during the Lebanese Civil War, he began writing books about war, ultimately producing more than 20. Many of his books cover specific conflicts and theaters, such as Six Armies in Normandy (1982), The Second World War (1989), The Iraq War (2004), and The American Civil War (2009). Other books dealt with more thematic aspects of war, such as the nature of military leadership in The Mask of Command (1987) and its cultural roots in A History of Warfare (1993). Keegan’s most admired book is The Face of Battle (1976), which vividly describes the experience of soldiers in three of the most important battles in British military history: Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme. He worked for 25 years as a lecturer at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst. His book on the First World War proved controversial among historians for its opening contention that it was a “tragic and unnecessary conflict” (3), with others arguing that while it was certainly tragic, it was unavoidable. Keegan was knighted in 2000 for his contributions to history. He was married to Suzanne Ingeborg from 1960 until his death in 2012 at the age of 78. He had two sons and two daughters.

Also a distinguished academic, John Keegan held professorships at prestigious institutions in the United States, including Princeton University and Vassar College. As an alumnus of Balliol College, University of Oxford, he specialized in war theory, and his diverse background also included a three-year tenure at the American Embassy in London.

Renowned for challenging the conventional wisdom, Keegan rejected Carl von Clausewitz's belief that wars were nearly inevitable and served as a test for scholars’ and government officials' ideas. In his seminal work, The First World War, Keegan notably argued against the inevitability of World War I, a position hotly debated by fellow scholars who contended it was unavoidable. Keegan's unconventional views extended to his assertion that certain wars, such as the Vietnam War and the Iraq War, were necessary, sparking lively debates surrounding his work.