[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

I think Blair mentioned some info. in his book, but my second volume fell apart recently.

You should see my dogeared, margin-notes crammed copy of Clausewitz ON WAR I've got Blair's two volume on kindle-saves wear, tear and space on my stressed out military-book shelves. Considering Germany's generals utilized this book :

 

On War is an unfinished work. Clausewitz had set about revising his accumulated manuscripts in 1827, but did not live to finish the task. His wife edited his collected works and published them between 1832 and 1835.(a little like Lucy Custer writing about George Armstrong C.; and perpetuating a myth to earn a living in widowhood ??!!) His 10-volume collected works contain most of his larger historical and theoretical writings, though not his shorter articles and papers or his extensive correspondence with important political, military, intellectual and cultural leaders in the Prussian state. On War is formed by the first three volumes and represents his theoretical explorations. It is one of the most important treatises on political-military analysis and strategy ever written, and remains both controversial and influential on strategic thinking. On War is a work rooted solely in the world of the nation state...It has been blamed for the level of destruction involved in the First and Second World Wars, but it seems rather that Clausewitz (who did not actually use the term "total war") had merely foreseen the inevitable development that started with the huge, patriotically motivated armies of the Napoleonic wars. These wars resulted (though war's evolution has not yet ended) in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with all the forces and capabilities of the state devoted to destroying forces and capabilities of the enemy state (thus "total war"). Conversely, Clausewitz has also been seen as "The preeminent military and political strategist of limited war in modern times." who knows, maybe von C.'s wife is the real culprit; and not der Kaiser Wilhelm....