Clausewitz and His Time: Essays in the Cultural and Intellectual History of Thinking about War by Peter Paret

Abstract

Clausewitz and His Time: Essays in the Cultural and Intellectual History of Thinking about War, by Peter Paret. New York and Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2015. vii, 134 pp. $39.95 US (cloth). Carl von Clausewitz's On War (Berlin, 1832) is one of those classic works more often cited than read. To many people, Clausewitz is reducible his famous statement in chapter one that [w]ar is merely the continuation of policy by other means (Der Krieg ist eine blosse Fortsetzung der Politik mit anderen Mitteln). That the German word Politik can mean both and policy in English suggests the breadth of Clausewitz's understanding of war and the myriad ways that all wars are intertwined with larger historical forces--a central theme of Peter Paret's book. Paret, Professor Emeritus of the Institute for Advanced Study, has studied Clausewitz for over half a century. His biography, Clausewitz and the State (New York, 1976), and his translation in the same year, in collaboration with Michael Howard, of On War (Princeton, 1976) are essential starting points for any serious student of Clausewitz. In the present slim volume, Paret brings together four of his recent essays on Clausewitz (all published separately), two new essays, and a short introduction. He seeks supplement his earlier works by providing new, or more detailed, analyses of both Clausewitz's texts and the contexts in which the latter developed his ideas, culminating in his magnum opus, On War. Two essays look ahead, comparing Clausewitz Alfred von Schlieffen in their interpretations of Frederick the Great's campaigns; and Clausewitz Marc Bloch on their interpretations of disastrous defeats--Prussia in 1806 and France in 1940, respectively. Not surprisingly, the book feels thematically loose and repeats some themes and material from Paret's earlier works. The book's longest and most substantial essay, A Learned Officer among Others, analyzes Clausewitz's development in the context of a cohort of five Prussian officers who came of age around 1800. Among them was the eminent playwright Heinrich von Kleist. All breathed the air of the German Enlightenment (especially the work of Kant), early Romanticism, and nationalism. All fought against Napoleon's army, experiencing first-hand its more flexible tactics. All were marked by the great defeats of Prussia at Jena and Auerstadt in 1806, and the subsequent reforms of the Prussian Army. And all (save Kleist) rose high positions in the Prussian military state. All, notes Paret, possessed a common-sense awareness of the links between war and politics (67). Yet only Clausewitz was able to create a systematic theoretical understanding of how war and the reasons for it interact in policy, but also in other realms commonly thought of as purely military or purely civilian (67). …