Clausewitz's On War: Books That Shook The World

(Paperback)

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On War by Karl von Clausewitz was first published in Germany after the Napoleonic Wars. As one of the most significant treatises on military strategy ever written, it is still prescribed at various military academies today. Its description of 'total war' and its insistence on the inevitability of combat and death have been blamed for the level of destruction involved in both the first and second world wars. Hew Strachan's accessible and readable book explains why and how On War was written, the impact that it made on conflict, and its continued significance in our world today.

Author Bio

Hew Strachan is Chichele Professor of Military History at the University of Oxford and a Life Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He is the author of the definitive three-volume history of the Great War, the first volume of which, To Arms, combined military and strategic perspective with cultural, diplomatic, economic, and social history, and represented the viewpoints of Germany, Britain and France with equal clarity. It was published in 2001 and described by the Guardian as 'a towering achievement' and by the Los Angeles Times as 'a masterpiece . . . sumptuous in the energy, clarity and breadth'.