If you are going to start reading Keegan books then start with this one. His best work in my opinion. In this volume Keegan
looks at warfare from a human perspective focusing on soldiers and less on leaders. It is a relatively easy read. If you have an interest in this subject of how
battle's are fought and won then you should probably read this. The photos in the book are not that good, but it does have a few useful maps.
True, the introduction is
long and somewhat useless. True the author disgresses and repeats himself. But just for the chapter on Agincourt, read this and you will know what it was to be in this battle, in the midst of men fighting and dying.
Keegan takes a look at some major battles and tells them from the perspective of the soldier rather than the leaders. This is perhaps the most "human" work of military history in print.
He compares and contrasts the technological advancements in combat weapons from the battle of Agincourtin 1415, to Waterloo in 1815, and finally to the battle of the Somme in 1916. In each instance he relates how standoff and kill technique has been with us as long as man has been able to propel missiles at his enemy. The difference over time is the number of people that can be killed by one shot or blast.
The archers at Aginsourt were successful not only due to their skill, but because of the terrain and the weather. The artillery at Waterloo was more devastating due to the range of its blast and the tight formations of the soldiers. And, the Maxim guns of the Germans at the Somme, after winning the "race to the parapets", were even more effective because the English leadership did not insist that their infantry run across no-man's land rather than walk.
Keegan goes into detail upon detail, all layered in a contextural fabric, that leads the reader to see war in a way not previously envisioned. An excellent book and one of the first he wrote in the course of many.