These essays provide an authoritative introduction to Carl von Clausewitz and enlarge the history of war by joining it to the history of ideas and institutions and linking it with intellectual biography. Reflecting Peter Paret's three decades of study of Clausewitz and of the history of war, they examine Clausewitz's theoretical work in the context of his time and in relation to war as a general historical phenomenon. Although the analytical strength of On War makes it far more than a historical document, Clausewitz's ideas and the methods he employed to express, develop, and test them become clearer when his work is seen against a historical background. The first six essays analyze military power in European history and discuss the transformation of war at the end of the eighteenth century. They provide the historical setting for the following nine essays, which address significant aspects of Clausewitz s life and thought, from the logic of his theories to his aesthetics and his reactions to the revolutions of 1830. The concluding essay examines the history of war as a scholarly discipline. Together these pieces shed new light on Clausewitz, on the age in which he lived, and on his theories, which retain a timeless interest.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. War and its institutions. Military power -- The relationship between the American Revolutionary War and European military thought and practice -- Nationalism and the sense of military obligation -- Conscription and the end of the ancien régime in France and Prussia -- Napolean as enemy -- Jena and Auerstedt. 2. Clausewitz. Clausewitz: life and thought -- Two letters on strategy -- Clausewitz as historian -- Continuity and discontinuity in some interpretations by Tocqueville and Clausewitz -- Kleist and Clausewitz: a comparative sketch -- Clausewitz's politics -- "A proposition not a solution": Clausewitz's attempt to become Prussian minister at the Court of St. James -- Reactions to revolution -- An unknown letter by Clausewitz. 3. The history of war. The history of war and the new military history.