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.