em, and they got really hostile. It was interesting to learn that the war against the Indians was postponed because of the Civil War, and that the army that did do battle with the Indians was a large step down in quality than it was twenty years ago. Also the theories on what happened to Custer and his army were interesting. “Flying Fortresses” was a good idea that went bad. Keegan spent the whole book describing battles fought in America, and then he starts talking about the airplane. Now this is important, in that the airplane did change the way wars were fought. However, hearing all about the Orvilles’ lives and their parallels to that of the Eisenhowers’ was very unnecessary and uninteresting. Keegan did end Fields of Battle on a good note; he deserves that, what was he thinking when he wrote the pages just before the end?While reading Fields of Battle, I learned some important things that I did not know or thought to the contrary. I did not know that George Washington lost some battles during his military career. In modern America, Washington is portrayed mainly as a politician and our nation’s first president- now I know why more focus is not given to the battles that he fought against the British. I did not know that the first Africans were brought to America in 1619, to Jamestown, Virginia. I had not really given much thought as to when the first Africans were brought to America, but I guess I thought it was later. I learned that, before becoming a Civil War hero and the President of the United States, Grant was a failure. Apparently the Civil War did for Grant what World War 2 did for Winston Churchill. Finally, and this is not very important, I always thought that Illinois was part of the Great Plains. When Keegan listed the ten states that were, Illinois sadly was not one of them.Fields of Battle is not for everyone. It is probably intended to supplement what you would read about these wars in an...
