On War

Penguin Classics relaunch.

Writing at the time of Napoleon’s greatest campaigns, Prussian soldier and writer Carl von Clausewitz created this landmark treatise on the art of warfare, which presented war as part of a coherent system of political thought.

In line with Napoleon’s own military actions, he illustrated the need to annihilate the enemy and make a strong display of one’s power in an ‘absolute war’ without compromise. But he was also careful to distinguish between war and politics, arguing that war could only be justified when debate was no longer adequate, and that if undertaken, its aim should ultimately be to improve the wellbeing of the nation.