FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W176288538> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W176288538 startingPage "439" @default.
• W176288538 abstract "The American Civil War: A Military History. By John Keegan. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. Pp. xvi, 396. $35.00, ISBN 978-0-307-26343-8.) With approach of American Civil War's sesquicentennial, major publishers are bound to flood bookstores with new histories of that off-studied conflict. John Keegan, British military historian who has frequently graced best-seller lists since release of his blockbuster, The Face of Battle (New York, 1976), has stolen a march on competition by publishing The American Civil War: A Military History two years before anniversary observances commence. Keegan deliberately primes his readers to expect something special. His new book's dust jacket copy hails him as the greatest military historian of our time. Unfortunately, Keegan's overview of American Civil War falls far below level of excellence that he established three decades ago. The most charitable description one can apply to Keegan's take on Civil War is old-fashioned. The book reads like a relic from 1960s. Keegan's sparse endnotes and bibliography reveal a fondness for works that may have represented cutting edge during Civil War centennial but have been long supplanted by subsequent research. Keegan also overlooks decades of historiography that demonstrate how social revolution ignited by Civil War shaped its conduct and outcome. He stubbornly clings to paradigm cherished by legions of buffs. To an extraordinary degree, Keegan proclaims, the Civil War was a war of battles (p, 357). Such an approach lends itself to kind of dramatic narrative that pleases mass audiences, but it distorts nature of this complicated popular rebellion and that of modern warfare in general. The belief that wars are won mainly on battlefield contributed to Britain's loss of thirteen colonies between 1775 and 1783, America's disaster in Vietnam, and near defeat of American and British forces during second war in Iraq. Shackled to tradition, Keegan depicts Civil War as essentially a succession of Napoleonic-style clashes. He transforms a people's contest into simply a chess match between generals. Consequently, he has little to say that would contribute to a new interpretation of how this war was fought and won. He stresses importance of geography, arguing that topography of Confederacy provided a formidable challenge and greatly delayed Union's ultimate victory. While there is no disputing this insight, it is not original to Keegan. Like contemporary European observers, Keegan disparages fighting abilities of Union and Confederate armies, forgetting that supposedly professional British, French, and Russian forces that fought in Crimean War a decade earlier failed to establish a standard worthy of emulation. At same time, he seems to pander to acolytes of American exceptionalism by labeling Civil War as the most important ideological war in history (p. 357). That declaration may have been more telling had Keegan paid adequate attention to role that ideology played in struggle. He fails into trap of ignoring spontaneous eruptions of guerrilla violence that dogged Union forces almost everywhere they went in Confederacy and how that moved generals in blue to inexorably embrace hard-war policies targeting enemy populace. Keegan paints with a broad brush in this book, which is to be expected in a survey of any major conflict. Sadly, an uncertain grip on salient facts leads to a blurred picture. Keegan exhibits an imperfect mastery of American way of war and military system that emerged during Civil War. He attributes outcome of U.S.-Mexican War to marksmanship, an absurdity since vast majority of American soldiers carried inaccurate smoothbore muskets. …" @default.
• W176288538 created "2016-06-24" @default.
• W176288538 creator A5001573164 @default.
• W176288538 date "2011-05-01" @default.
• W176288538 modified "2023-09-26" @default.
• W176288538 title "The American Civil War: A Military History" @default.
• W176288538 hasPublicationYear "2011" @default.
• W176288538 type Work @default.
• W176288538 sameAs 176288538 @default.
• W176288538 citedByCount "0" @default.
• W176288538 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W176288538 hasAuthorship W176288538A5001573164 @default.
• W176288538 hasConcept C17744445 @default.
• W176288538 hasConcept C195244886 @default.
• W176288538 hasConcept C199539241 @default.
• W176288538 hasConcept C203715995 @default.
• W176288538 hasConcept C2778627824 @default.
• W176288538 hasConcept C29598333 @default.
• W176288538 hasConcept C5021368 @default.
• W176288538 hasConcept C74916050 @default.
• W176288538 hasConcept C81631423 @default.
• W176288538 hasConcept C95457728 @default.
• W176288538 hasConceptScore W176288538C17744445 @default.
• W176288538 hasConceptScore W176288538C195244886 @default.
• W176288538 hasConceptScore W176288538C199539241 @default.
• W176288538 hasConceptScore W176288538C203715995 @default.
• W176288538 hasConceptScore W176288538C2778627824 @default.
• W176288538 hasConceptScore W176288538C29598333 @default.
• W176288538 hasConceptScore W176288538C5021368 @default.
• W176288538 hasConceptScore W176288538C74916050 @default.
• W176288538 hasConceptScore W176288538C81631423 @default.
• W176288538 hasConceptScore W176288538C95457728 @default.
• W176288538 hasIssue "2" @default.
• W176288538 hasLocation W1762885381 @default.
• W176288538 hasOpenAccess W176288538 @default.
• W176288538 hasPrimaryLocation W1762885381 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W112048425 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W1550595629 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W1584285661 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W1981274331 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W200895987 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W2018037979 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W2046384056 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W2057815888 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W2067947939 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W223833321 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W2282337884 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W2401426388 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W240933567 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W241938580 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W2618247189 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W3122787588 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W3152027226 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W577422305 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W644177498 @default.
• W176288538 hasRelatedWork W2185854378 @default.
• W176288538 hasVolume "77" @default.
• W176288538 isParatext "false" @default.
• W176288538 isRetracted "false" @default.
• W176288538 magId "176288538" @default.
• W176288538 workType "article" @default.