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Audiobook (abridged)9 hours
Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda
Written by John Keegan
Narrated by Simon Prebble
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
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Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
In fiction, the spy is a glamorous figure whose secrets make or break peace, but, historically, has intelligence really been a vital step to military victories? In this breakthrough study, the preeminent war historian John Keegan goes to the heart of a series of important conflicts to develop a powerful argument about military intelligence.
In his characteristically wry and perceptive prose, Keegan offers us nothing short of a new history of war through the prism of intelligence. He brings to life the split-second decisions that went into waging war before the benefit of aerial surveillance and electronic communications. The English admiral Horatio Nelson was hot on the heels of Napoleon's fleet in the Mediterranean and never knew it, while Stonewall Jackson was able to compensate for the Confederacy's disadvantage in firearms and manpower with detailed maps of the Appalachians. In the past century, espionage and decryption have changed the face of battle: the Japanese surprise attack at the Battle of the Midway was thwarted by an early warning. Timely information, however, is only the beginning of the surprising and disturbing aspects of decisions that are made in war, where brute force is often more critical.
Intelligence in War is a thought-provoking work that ranks among John Keegan's finest achievements.
From the Hardcover edition.
In his characteristically wry and perceptive prose, Keegan offers us nothing short of a new history of war through the prism of intelligence. He brings to life the split-second decisions that went into waging war before the benefit of aerial surveillance and electronic communications. The English admiral Horatio Nelson was hot on the heels of Napoleon's fleet in the Mediterranean and never knew it, while Stonewall Jackson was able to compensate for the Confederacy's disadvantage in firearms and manpower with detailed maps of the Appalachians. In the past century, espionage and decryption have changed the face of battle: the Japanese surprise attack at the Battle of the Midway was thwarted by an early warning. Timely information, however, is only the beginning of the surprising and disturbing aspects of decisions that are made in war, where brute force is often more critical.
Intelligence in War is a thought-provoking work that ranks among John Keegan's finest achievements.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Reviews for Intelligence in War
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Perhaps because I listened to this audiobook to be presented with a systematic discussion of the evolution of state sponsored intelligence techniques and services, I was somewhat disappointed with this book. The author, a first rate British military historian, does give us some exposure to the evolution of such intelligence but only as he discusses a number of military engagements. With the exception of the closing chapters and a few of the opening discussions, the military engagements discussed are all British military engagements. To extract from the book a systematic understanding of the evolution of intelligence services, one has to mentally review the presentation and draw one’s own conclusions, a somewhat uncertain task.