ple out. The British kicked out the French, the “Americans” kicked out the British, and the Americans (for the purpose of following form, I would like to say “kicked out”) rid themselves of trouble with Indians. Keegan guesses that this is the theme of his book, but never touches upon it again. It is a little harder than expected to simply classify Fields of Battle as a military-history book about the wars fought on American soil. First of all, and it was mentioned earlier, this book is sort of autobiographical of John Keegan’s life and encounters with America. The entire first chapter is devoted to Keegan’s explaining his perspective and experiences of our country and our neighbor to the north. Also, Fields of Battle contains something that most other history books do not: a little bit of drama and suspense. These two are present throughout the book, but they are especially evident in the parts about Custer and his “Last Stand.” In addition, after Keegan told of the many mistakes on the part of McClellan, in overestimating the size of the Confederate’s forces, one feels a bit happy to see him relieved of his duty. In the piece about the invention of the airplane, a good deal of pages solely describe the life and times if the brothers Wright. Of what importance this serves, it is hard to find. The main substance of Fields of Battle is Keegan’s analyses of major battles, not of wars. Keegan did not describe the how the Civil War started, and he only briefly described how it ended. As stated earlier, the entire first chapter of Fields of Battle, entitled “One Englishman’s America,” is necessary, but it is also too long. The reader needs to know about Keegan’s many trips to America so that his credentials can be established, but they do not need to know that Keegan thinks American pilots sound like Walter Matthau. Keegan probably should have drawn the lin...
