Description

Carl von Clausewitz's On War, first published in Germany after the Napoleonic Wars, is perhaps the most important book on military strategy ever written. It has influenced generations of generals and politicians, has been blamed for the unprecedented death tolls in the First and Second World Wars, and is still required reading at military academies to this day.

But On War, which was never finished and was published posthumously, is obscure and fundamentally contradictory. What Clausewitz declares in Book 1 he discounts in Book 8. The language is confusing and the relevance not always clear. For a book that has truly changed the world, On War is extremely difficult for the general reader to approach, to reconcile with itself, and to place in context.

Clausewitz's On War by Hew Strachan is a timely and fascinating answer to these problems. Strachan, one of the world's foremost military historians, explains in this addition to the Books That Changed the World series how and why On War was written, elucidates what Clausewitz meant, and offers insight into the impact it made on conflict and its continued relevance.