Perspective

Carl Phillip Gottlieb von Clausewitz (1780-1831) was a Prussian Major-General and Military Theorist from a middle-class family. As a young man he served as a field soldier and staff officer and fought in a number of different conflicts, including many in the Napoleonic Wars. By achieving the rank of Major-General at age 38, Clausewitz was able to marry into the higher nobility and become a member of the intellectual elite in Berlin at a time when the Prussian Empire was the center of Western philosophical and social thought (Kant and Hegel were major figures around this time). Clausewitz's famous work On War (Vom Kriege) was written at this time and is a model of both social theory and military analysis which has been translated into every major language. His fame is due to the influence of his work which may be the most important work ever written on warfare...