On War

"War is simply the continuation of politics by other means." Far too many people quote Clausewitz without reading him, but after reading this edition of On War, there is no excuse not to read Clausewitz, and perhaps understand him. I will speak first to the translation: This is how it should be done.......more

Almost 200 years later, this masterpiece is still misunderstood and ignored. Clausewitz argues that the purpose of war is to disarm your opponent and thereby force him to give you want you want. Based on this premise, he concludes that wars are essentially unwinnable on the battlefield: it is virtual......more

From a scholarly view it is a great resource for the study of the lessons learned from the Napoleonic wars but I found it boring. It was a challenge to keep reading this book to the end as he describes the details of strategy and dry descriptions of warfare. The saving grace of this book was how imp......more

A very wordy tome. Felt like I was reading War and Peace. Clausewitz seemed obsessed with Fredrick the Great. Odd that Clausewitz didn't mention Wellington. The edition I read needs to have the typos fixed. Not much mentioned about sea power or guerilla warfare. The book is a good snap shot of the t......more

The imposing and tangled manuscript meant to become a comprehensive theory on war and its praxis. ----------------- Le manuscrit intimidant et broussailleux qui devait servir à une théorie générale de la guerre.......more