Abstract

The Prussian military philosopher Carl von Clausewitz remains today the most prominent military theorist. The reception of his concepts by Anglo-American military writers over the past century and-a-half has never been systematically examined. This historical study traces the growth of Clausewitz studies in England and America from the end of the Napoleonic wars to the dawn of the Atomic Era. It demonstrates that the Anglo-American study of Clausewitz has a longer history, involved a larger readership, and assumed a quite different character than historians have thus far acknowledged. It is based largely on published contemporary writings on military affairs, supplemented by private papers, government documents, and correspondence with still-living subjects. It demonstrates the varied manner in which Clausewitz's ideas have been understood or theoretically applied and relates variations in that understanding to events, to personalities, or to peculiarities in Anglo-American social, political, and military characteristics