On War

By
Carl Clausewitz
Penguin Books Ltd
 Combining military theory and raw accounts of its practice, Carl
von Clausewitz's treatise On War has had a profound influence on
subsequent thinking on warfare. This Penguin Classics edition is
edited with an introduction by Anatol Rapoport.

Writing at the time of Napoleon's greatest campaigns, Prussian

soldier and writer Carl von Clausewitz created this landmark treatise
on the art of warfare, which presented war as part of a coherent
system of political thought. In line with Napoleon's own military
actions, he illustrated the need to annihilate the enemy and make a
strong display of one's power in an 'absolute war' without
compromise. But he was also careful to distinguish between war and
politics, arguing that war could only be justified when debate was
no longer adequate, and that if undertaken, its aim should ultimately
be to improve the wellbeing of the nation, pioneering the notion of
war as 'politics by other means'.

This edition contains a detailed introduction, examining von

Clausewitz's skill and reputation as a writer, philosopher and
political thinker, as well as a bibliography, notes and a glossary.

Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) was a Prussian soldier and writer

who entered the Prussian Military at the age of twelve with the rank
of Lance-Corporal, serving in the Rhine campaign from 1793 to
1794. In 1801 he joined the Berlin Military Academy, where he
studied Kant and attracted the attention of General Gerhard von
Scharnhorst, whom he later helped to reform the Prussian army.
More a philosopher than a soldier, Clausewitz's fame rests on the
enduring success of On War (Vom Kriege), unfinished at the time of
his death and published posthumously by his wife, in 1832.
If you enjoyed On War, you might like Sun-Tzu's The Art of War,
also available in Penguin Classics.

Penguin Books Ltd

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