The origins of military thought : from the Enlightenment to Clausewitz
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The origins of military thought : from the Enlightenment to Clausewitz
（Oxford historical monographs）
Clarendon Press 1991, c1989
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Note
Hardcover published in 1989, first issued in paperback in 1991
Rev. and enl. version of the author's thesis (doctoral), St. Antony's College, Oxford University, 1984
Includes bibliographical references
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book sheds new light on the origins and nature of modern military thinking. The ideas of Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) - which remain at the heart of strategic analysis today - have hitherto been examined largely in isolation from their cultural and philosophical roots in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Azar Gat now demonstrates the extent to which culture affects military theory.
Dr Gat relates a series of military thinkers to their cultural background, demonstrating how the major currents of modern military thought have evolved from the world-view of the Enlightenment on the one hand and Romanticism on the other. Tracing the development of Clausewitz's ideas, he provides a provocative critique of Clausewitz's classic work, On War. In the process, he offers an illuminating insight into a great period of European culture and into warfare in the age of
Napoleon.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: Machiavelli and the classical notion of the lessons of history in the study of war
- PART I. THE MILITARY SCHOOL OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT: Montecuccoli: The impact of proto-science on military theory
- The military thinkers of the French enlightenment: The quest for a general theory of war
- The Military thinkers of the German Aufklarung: The military Aufklares: Lloyd: His international career, intellectual scope, and the campaigns of the Seven Years war: Bulow: Between a geometrical science of strategy and the revolution in war
- Through the Napoleonic Age: Archduke Charles and the Austrian military school: Jomini: Synthesizing the legacy of the enlightenment with Napoleonic warfare
- PART II. THE GERMAN MOVEMENT: CLAUSEWITZ AND THE ORIGINS OF THE GERMAN MILITARY SCHOOL: The reaction against the enlightenment: New perspectives on military theory: The emergence of a new climate of ideas: Berenhorst: Counter-enlightenment and the criticism of the Frederickian system
- Clausewitz: Demolishing and rebuilding the theoretical ideal: Scharnhorst's place and legacy: Reformulating military theory in terms of a new intellectual paradigm: How to form a universal theory of war?: Clausewitz: The nature of war: Military decisiveness and political greatness: Reflecting the Napoleonic model: Politics and war: The Ambiguous transformation clarified
- Conclusion
- Appendix
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