Carl Von Clausewitz

Clausewitz was born in 1780 in Prussia. His father had been a lieutenant in the Prussian Army and Clausewitz followed him at age twelve. By the time of his death in 1831, he would be a Major-General. Clausewitz served in a wide range of conflicts, from the Rhine Campaigns, the Siege of Mainz and many battles and campaigns in the Napoleonic Wars. He was instrumental in forming the coalition between Prussia, Russia and England that stopped Napoleon. In 1818 Clausewitz was made Major-General and made the director of the Prussian military academy, a position he held until 1830. Clausewitz had started working on Vom Kriege/On War in 1816 and did not finish when he died of cholera in 1831. His wife, Marie von Clausewitz, puts together his writings edited them and then published them in 1832.

Clausewitz was familiar with the German philosophy of his day, in particular the work of German...