Carl Von Clausewitz's "On War"

'Atlantic Books has achieved a publishing coup with its "Books that Shook the World" series...short biographies of great books, securing the best people to write them and ensuring that the remit to produce compendious, clear and engaged accounts...this series is a big success.' - A. C. Grayling, "The Times." Rights have been sold in 15 countries. Each volume is a beautifully designed and produced B-format hardback. "On War" by Carl von Clausewitz was first published in Germany after the Napoleonic Wars. One of the most significant treatises on military strategy ever written, it is still prescribed at various military academies today. Its description of 'absolute war' and its insistence on the centrality of battle to war have been blamed for the level of destruction involved in both the First and Second World Wars. Hew Strachan's accessible book challenges the popular misconceptions that surround "On War". He dispels the notion that for Clausewitz policy necessarily shapes war, asserting instead that war has its own dynamic and that its reciprocal effects can themselves shape policy. Strachan returns to the very heart of "On War" to recover the arguments at its core, in the process challenging the received wisdom about this cornerstone of military strategy. Hew Strachan is one of the world's foremost historians of war. His book is a vigorous and timely analysis of von Clausewitz's seminal treatise. These are from the reviews of The First World War.