Buy the best translation—recommended for serious readers. The Book of War (The Modern Library, February 2000). ISBNs: 0375754776, 9780375754777. Clausewitz and Sun Tzu in one book. The translation of Clausewitz's On War is the 1943 version done by German literary scholar O.J. Matthijs Jolles at the University of Chicago during World War II—not today's standard translation, but certainly the most accurate. The only flagrant error we're aware of is the Germanic (but incorrect) spelling of Clausewitz's first name with a 'K'—almost certainly the publisher's decision, not the translator's. Overall, the main problem with the Jolles translation is that it was made during World War II and reflects anachronistic attitudes: Clausewitz's Prussia was not Nazi Germany. With an interesting introduction by contemporary military guru Ralph Peters. The version of Sun Tzu included is also excellent—this is the modern translation by Roger Ames, based on complete ancient texts found by archaeologists.

A complete (all 8 Books) posting of the 1873 J.J. Graham translation is provided free on-line HERE, freed of the anachronistic insertions of later editors (principally Maude and Rapoport). The Graham translation is quite accurate, but its English is typically Victorian.

On War, by Carl von Clausewitz, trans. Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Alfred A. Knopf, 1976/84). ISBN: 0679420436. This is the Everyman's Library edition, a very fine edition of the Howard/Paret translation. It is superior in some ways to the standard Princeton version, despite the H/P translation's fundamental weaknesses. However, the pagination is different, making it more difficult to locate specific quotations, etc. If you're serious about reading Clausewitz in detail, read the much more accurate translation by O.J. Mattjis Jolles. See this discussion of the various English translations of Clausewitz's Vom Kriege.

A complete (all 8 Books) posting of the 1873 J.J. Graham translation is provided free on-line HERE, freed of the anachronistic insertions of later editors (principally Maude and Rapoport). The Graham translation is quite accurate, but its English is typically Victorian.

Buy the standard English translation of Clausewitz's On War, by Michael Howard and Peter Paret  (Princeton University Press, 1976/84). ISBN: 0691018545 (paperback). Kindle edition. This quite readable translation appeared at the close of the Vietnam War and has become the modern standard. However, if you're serious about reading Clausewitz in detail, read the much more accurate translation by O.J. Mattjis Jolles—See it listed above or to the far left of this column. Even the Jolles edition suffers, however, from anachronistic attitudes toward Prussia/Germany at the time of translation (1943). It may be too early to tell how much the Cold Wart/Vietnam context may have distorted H/P's presentation.
  For background, see this discussion of the various English translations of Clausewitz's Vom Kriege.

A complete (all 8 Books) posting of the 1873 J.J. Graham translation is provided free on-line HERE, freed of the anachronistic insertions of later editors (principally Maude and Rapoport). The Graham translation is quite accurate, but its English is typically Victorian.

Historical and Political Writings, by Carl von Clausewitz, trans. Peter Paret and Daniel Moran (Princeton University Press, 1992). ISBN: 0691031924. This companion volume to On War brings together some of Clausewitz's political writings and a selection of his historical works. This material reveals Clausewitz as an exceptionally independent observer both of the past and of his own times, distinguished by an unideological pragmatism and a keen sense of the possibilities and shortcomings of state power. Contents.

Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman Behind the Making of On War, by Vanya Eftimova Bellinger (Oxford University Press, 2015). ISBN: 0190225432.This is an important work in the field. While its focus may be on Marie, this is without a doubt the best biography of Carl as well. It provides the social, political, intellectual and professional context within which he moved in a remarkably round manner. It also provides a much stronger factual and evidentiary basis for assessing Clausewitz's personal character, motivations, and constraints than we have ever had before. With the research skills of both a journalist and a serious military scholar, Bellinger (a European who speaks multiple languages) has done a spectacular job of tracking down sources where no one else had thought to look. In the process she has recovered many materials thought lost in World War II and brought up others that were previously unconsidered. Without the efforts of the well educated, well connected, and highly political Countess Marie von Brühl, Carl's crucial work on military theory and strategy—Vom Kriege—would never have been published (and, quite likely, never written). This biography sheds enormous light on two extraordinary lives and minds, offering the first comprehensive and compelling look at the woman behind the creation of Vom Kriege. In the process, it gives us a much richer view of her husband's personal evolution and thus of the deeper meaning behind many of his concepts.

On small war: Carl von Clausewitz and people's war, by Sibylle Scheipers (Oxford University Press, 2018), viii + 174pp., ISBN: 9780198799047. Clausewitz has long been interpreted exclusively as the paradigmatic thinker on major interstate war. In fact, Clausewitz was an ardent analyst of small war. Scheipers reconstructs Clausewitz's intellectual development in the context the political and philosophical currents of his own times—German Idealism, Romanticism, and Humanism—and shows how he systematically integrated people's war into his mature theories in Vom Kriege. Reviewed by James W. Davis, Contemporary Political Theory (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-018-0272-x

Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Hew Strachan and Andreas Herberg-Rothe (Oxford University Press, September 2007). ISBN: 0199232024. This is the proceedings of the March 2005 Oxford University conference on Clausewitz in the 21st Century. This is a stellar, multidisciplinary collection of essays that defines the current state of the art in Clausewitz studies. Kindle edition.
 
See discussion by Andreas Herberg-Rothe and Tony Echevarri; 2007 Review by James Woudhuysen in Spiked.

Clausewitz's On War: A Biography, by Hew Strachan (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006). ISBN: 0871139561. In this biography of the book On War (not of its author), Strachan, one of the world's foremost military historians, offers some answers to many of the problems posed by Clausewitz's writings. He explains how and why On War was written, elucidates what Clausewitz meant, offers insight into the impact it has had on conflict, and evaluates its continued significance in our world today.

Clausewitz in His Time: Essays in the Cultural and Intellectual History of Thinking About War, by Peter Paret (Berghahn, 2014). 134pp. ISBNs 1782385819, 978-1782385813. Clausewitz was far from being a detached theorist. He was as intensely aware of the cultural and intellectual currents of his time as he was engaged in its political and military conflicts. The society in which he lived and the people with whom he served affected both the analytical methods he developed and the conclusions he reached. The essays in this volume deepen our knowledge of Clausewitz's understanding of warfare, from its mechanisms to its apparently permanent place in interstate relations.

Decoding Clausewitz: A New Approach to On War, by Jon Tetsuro Sumida (University Press of Kansas, 2008). ISBN (hardcover): 9780700616169; (paperback 0700618198). Sumida contends that Clausewitz's central value lies in his method of reenacting the psychological difficulties of high command in order to promote the powers of intuition that he believed were essential to effective strategic decision-making. Sumida also correctly notes Clausewitz's argument that the defense is a stronger form of war than the offense and goes on to argue that this is in fact his primary strategic proposition. This concept, Sumida maintains, must be understood in order to make sense of Clausewitz's positions on absolute and real war, guerrilla warfare, and the relationship of war and policy/politics. Here is the Preface and Table of Contents. Here is the preface to the (revised) paperback edition (2011).

Clausewitz and the State, 2nd edition, by Peter Paret (Princeton University Press, 2007). ISBN: 0691131309. The new edition of this classic 1976 work—the best biography of Clausewitz available in English—includes a preface that allows Paret to recount the past thirty years of discussion on Clausewitz and respond to critics. A companion volume to Clausewitz's On War, this book is indispensable to anyone interested in Clausewitz, his theories, and their proper historical context.

Clausewitz in English: The Reception of Clausewitz in Britain and America, 1815-1945, by Christopher Bassford (Oxford University Press, 1994). ISBN: 0195083830. Explores what soldiers, academics, and others in the English-speaking world were saying about Clausewitz between 1815 and the mid-1990s—and, more intriguingly, why. Not always a pretty tale. The full text is on-line free HERE.

"[A] startlingly worthwhile book.... Bassford tells a great story of dutiful struggle and pigheadedness, of petty revenge and epiphany, and, ultimately, of how Anglophone armies that read Clausewitz reluctantly beat the hell out of a German-speaking military that willfully read him wrong." (Ralph Peters)

Clausewitz's Timeless Trinity: A Framework for Modern War, by Colin M. Fleming [U. Ediburgh, UK]. Ashgate (Military Strategy and Operational Art), 2013. ISBN-10: 140944287X, ISBN-13: 978409442875. Innovatively applying the Clausewitzian Trinity of 'passion, chance, and reason' to the experience of real war, Fleming explores the depth and validity of the concept against the conflicts of former Yugoslavia—wars thought to epitomise a "post-Clausewitzian" age. In doing so it demonstrates the timeless message of the Trinity, but also ties the Trinitarian idea back into Clausewitz's political argument. Intended to build on the existing corpus of scholarship, this book differs from the existing literature in two ways. By applying the Trinity to the wars of former Yugoslavia 1991-1995, it explores war at its micro-foundations, assessing the complex cause-and-effect nexus of reciprocity produced by actions between belligerents embroiled in dynamic competition perpetuated by their own interaction.

War, Clausewitz and the Trinity, by Thomas Waldman. Ashgate, 2013. ISBN 9781409451396. Today, the ideas of Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) are employed almost ubiquitously in the strategic studies, military history and defence literatures. Often, however, the writers distort the concepts' true meaning. In this book, Waldman explores Clausewitz's central theoretical device for understanding war—the 'remarkable trinity' of politics, chance, and passion. By situating the great Prussian in his own historical context, he presents a conception much truer to Clausewitz's intention. Publisher's page: UK — US.

Clausewitz, The State and War. Editors Andreas Herberg-Rothe, Jan Willem Honig, and Daniel Moran. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2011. ISBN 9783515099127. Clausewitz’s understanding of war was shaped by his understanding of the state, which he regarded as the central institution of modern life. His achievements as a theorist of war in turn clarify one of the state’s essential activities: the use of force to defend and advance its interests and values, and those of the society it governs. These diverse essays take Clausewitz’s ideas about the state as the starting point for analyzing the central issue posed by his work: the relationship between war in all its manifestations and politics in all its forms. The modern state was the starting point for Clausewitz’s understanding of politics, but did not unduly confine his outlook, nor cause him to suppose that only states make war. Similarly, while it is the wars of states that provided most of the historical evidence on which his theoretical work rests, the implications of that work can be seen to encompass political violence in all its forms.

Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaign, by Carl von Clausewitz, trans. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle (University Press of Kansas, 2018). 352pp. ISBNs: 070062676X, 978-0700626762. Paperback (also available in hardcover). Among Clausewitz's historical works is this study of the Italian campaign of 1796, which marked a crucial period in the French Revolutionary Wars. The proper title should be The Campaign of 1796 in Italy (a direct translation of the German title, Der Feldzug von 1796 in Italien) and Clausewitz is concerned with all key decision-makers in the campaign, not just Napoleon. Constantly moving from politics to strategy to battle scene to analysis, this first English translation nimbly conveys the character of Clausewitz's writing in all its registers: the brisk, often powerful description of events as they unfolded; the critical reflections on strategic theory and its implications; and most bracing, the dissection and sharp judgment of the actions of the French and Austrian commanders. The translation itself is highly readable and straight-forward, though marred by some questionable editorial interventions and footnotes.

Napoleon Absent, Coalition Ascendant: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 1, by Carl von Clausewitz, trans. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle (University Press of Kansas). 440pp. ISBNs 0700630252, 9780700630257. Paperback (also available in hardcover). Clausewitz (1780-1831) is best known for his masterpiece of military theory On War, yet that work formed only the first three of his ten-volume published writings. The others, historical analyses of the wars that roiled Europe from 1789 through 1815, informed and shaped Clausewitz's military thought, so they offer invaluable insight into his dialectical, often difficult theoretical masterwork. Among these historical works, one of the most important is vol. 5, Die Feldzüge von 1799 in Italien und der Schweiz, which covers an important phase of the French Revolutionary Wars. This is the first of two volumes of Napoleon Absent, Coalition Ascendant, which together will cover the period when Napoleon was absent from Europe during his invasion of Egypt. It focuses on the Second Coalition's campaign in Italy and the allies' victories under Suvorov's dynamic leadership that carried the tide of battle up against the French frontier. Moving from strategy to battle scene to analysis, the first English translation of this material nimbly conveys the character of Clausewitz's writing in all its registers: the brisk, often powerful description of events as they unfolded and the critical reflections on strategic theory and its implications. Napoleon Absent, Coalition Ascendant includes the major battles of Trebbia and Novi and will expand readers' experience and understanding of not only this critical moment in European history but also the thought and writings of the modern master of military philosophy.

Carl von Clausewitz, trans. Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle, The Coalition Crumbles, Napoleon Returns: The 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland, Volume 2 (University Press of Kansas). 344pp. ISBNs 0700630341, 978-0700630349. Paperback (also available in hardcover). Clausewitz (1780–1831) is best known for his masterpiece of military theory, On War, yet that work formed only the first three of his ten-volume published writings. The others, historical analyses of many wars that roiled Europe in various periods, especially during the age of the French Revolution and Napoleon, informed and shaped Clausewitz’s military thought, so they offer invaluable insight into his dialectical, often difficult theoretical masterwork. These historical works include Der Feldzug von 1799 in Italien und der Schweiz. Volume 2 focuses mainly on the campaigns in Switzerland, where cracks that finally fractured the alliance between Russia and Austria, leading to the defeat of the Second Coalition, first opened. Moving from strategy to battle scene to analysis, this first English translation of volume 6 of Clausewitz’s collected works nimbly conveys the character of Clausewitz’s writing in all its registers: the brisk, often powerful description of events as they unfolded and the critical reflections on strategic theory and its implications. The Coalition Crumbles, Napoleon Returns features Suvorov’s astonishing march through the St. Gotthard Pass and major actions such as the Second Battle of Zurich and the Battle of Mannheim. This campaign study highlighted the contrast between the opposing armies’ strengths and weaknesses and the problems of coalition warfare. This book will expand readers’ experience and understanding not only of this moment in European history but also of Clausewitz's broader evolution and thinking.

The Cognitive Challenge of War: Prussia, 1806, by Peter Paret. Princeton University Press, 2009. ISBNs: 069118335X; 978-0691183350. Clausewitz's study of the campaign of 1806, Observations on Prussia in Her Great Catastrophe of 1806, was politically so explosive that it could not be published in Germany until 1888. Oddly, there is no complete English translation. We have a 1922 U.S. Army collection of "Notes on the Jena Campaign" that covers parts of it, and Paret and Daniel Moran published the first 3 chapters in their collection of Clausewitz's historical and political writing. In this book, Paret's discussion traces Napoleon's victory over Prussia in 1806 and Prussia's effort to recover from defeat to show how in one particular historical episode operational analyses together with institutional and political decisions eventually turned defeat to victory. In the concluding chapter, Paret addresses the impact of 1806 on two men who fought on opposing sides in the campaign and sought a new theoretical understanding of war—Henri Jomini and Carl von Clausewitz. Reviewed by Jennie Kiesling [USMA].

The Campaign of 1812 in Russia, by Carl von Clausewitz, trans. anonymous [Francis Egerton, Lord Ellesmere]. London: J. Murray, 1843. This particular reprint publication (one of many), with a Foreword by Gerard Chaliand, is from Blue Crane Books and dated 1996/2019. Softcover, 148pp. ISBN: 0962871583. The same text is free on-line Here. A better modern translation, partial and available only in print but with much better background information, can be found in Clausewitz, Historical and Political Writings, eds./trans. Peter Paret and Daniel Moran (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), pp.110-205.

On Waterloo: Clausewitz, Wellington, and the Campaign of 1815, eds./trans. Christopher Bassford, Daniel Moran, and Gregory W. Pedlow (Clausewitz.com, 2010). ISBN: 1453701508. This book is built around a new and complete translation of Clausewitz's study of the Waterloo campaign [Berlin: 1835], which is a strategic analysis of the entire campaign (not just the Battle of Waterloo), and the Duke of Wellington's detailed 1842 response to it. It contains Wellington's initial battle report; two of Clausewitz's post-battle letters to his wife Marie; correspondence within Wellington's circle concerning Clausewitz's work; Clausewitz's full campaign study; Wellington's long memorandum; and enlightening essays by the editors. This was one of Clausewitz's latest campaign studies and its findings were never incorporated into On War. Thus most readers will find it new material. See reviews: MajGen/Dr. David T. Zabecki, The Journal of Military History, April 2011; Bruno Colson, "Clausewitz on Waterloo," War in History 19 (July 2012), pp.397-400.

Carl von Clausewitz, Principles of War. This is a reprint of Hans Gatske's 1942 translation of Die wichtigsten Grundsätze des Kriegführens zur Ergänzung meines Unterrichts bei Sr. Königlichen Hoheit dem Kronprinzen. It was composed for Clausewitz's 16-year-old royal student, the future King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, just before the 1812 Russian campaign. Dover Books. ISBN: 0486427994. The full Gatske text is available free on-line HERE. The 1873 J.J. Graham translation is also free on-line HERE. Whichever version you read, Remember that Principles of War (1812) is NOT a 'summary' of On War (1832) but a distant and quite different precursor.

War, Politics, and Power. Selections from On War, and "I Believe and Profess" by Carl von Clausewitz, translated and edited by Edward M. Collins [COL, USAF] (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1962). Softcover, 209pp. ISBN: 0895264013. This is a Cold War treatment that includes a translation of Clausewitz's famous “Bekenntnisdenkschrift,” or memorandum of confession. Writing in 1812 he insisted on “a Spanish war in Germany” (referring to the popular insurgency in Spain, which killed more French soldiers than were lost in Napoleon's invasion of Russia). Clausewitz outlined a comprehensive guerrilla strategy against Napoleonic France and supported his view with theoretical reflections about the nature of defence and offence.

Historical and Political Writings, by Carl von Clausewitz, trans. Peter Paret and Daniel Moran (Princeton University Press, 1992). ISBN: 0691031924. This companion volume to On War brings together some of Clausewitz's political writings and a selection of his historical works. This material reveals Clausewitz as an exceptionally independent observer both of the past and of his own times, distinguished by an un-ideological pragmatism and a keen sense of the possibilities and shortcomings of state power. Contents.

Clausewitz: Philosopher of War, by Raymond Aron, trans. Christine Booker and Norman Stone (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone Books, 1985; Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1985). 418pp. ISBNs: 0671628267, 9780671628260. Originally Penser la guerre, Clausewitz [Volume 1, L'âge européen, & Volume 2, L'âge planétaire (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1976)]. Raymond Aron (1905–1983) was an extremely influential French sociologist, journalist, political scientist, and philosopher. This is a notoriously poor translation. Most reviewers advise readers to read the book in the original French—even if they can't read French.

Rebooting Clausewitz: On War in the 21st Century, by Christopher J. Coker (Oxford University Press, 2017). 272pp. ISBNs: 978-0190656539, 0190656530. From the review by R. Gerald Hughes and Alexandros Koutsoukis: "Should anybody doubt whether Clausewitz could tell us any more about small wars, they would be well advised to read Christopher Coker's thoughts on the matter in his new book. Coker, a professor at the London School of Economics, weighs into the debates on Clausewitz on all fronts.... [He] asserts that, despite his notoriety, the role of politics in Clausewitz’s world view has never been accorded due prominence.... He approached, then, what we, roughly speaking, would call the political ideology identified as ‘realism’ today. This interpretation of the issue might not be appealing for those of us who remain committed to using general moral principles to judge war regardless of place or time. But Clausewitz’s central insight about the role of politics in preventing the escalation of conflicts and putting limits to military action might still be very useful."

On Clausewitz: A Study of Military and Political Ideas, by Hugh Smith (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). 272pp. ISBN-10: 1403935866, ISBN-13: 978-1403935861. Clausewitz is often quoted but more often misunderstood. On Clausewitz presents Smith's interpretation of his central ideas about war and politics—such as war as an instrument of policy, the concept of Absolute War, friction, and the fog of war—in a clear and systematic fashion. It also presents the man, his life, and the military and intellectual environment in which he produced his great work On War. The book tends to stress the limitations on Clausewitz's thought based on the era in which he worked. A final section considers Clausewitz's relevance to the rapidly changing character of war today.

War as Paradox: Clausewitz and Hegel on Fighting Doctrines and Ethics, by Youri Cormier (McGill Queens University Press, 2016). ISBNs: 978-0773547698. Cormier lifts the fog on Clausewitz's iconic work by explaining its philosophical underpinnings. Building up a genealogy of dialectical war theory and integrating Hegel with Clausewitz as a co-founders of the method, Cormier uncovers a common logic that shaped the fighting doctrines and ethics of modern war. He explains how Hegel and Clausewitz converged on method, but nonetheless arrived at opposite ethics and military doctrines. Ultimately, Cormier seeks out the limits to dialectical war theory and explores the greater paradoxes the method reveals: can so-called “rational” theories of war hold up under the pressures of irrational propositions, such as lone-wolf attacks, the circular logic of a “war to end all wars,” or the apparent folly of mutually assured destruction? Since the Second World War, commentators have described war as obsolete. War as Paradox argues that dialectical war theory may be the key to understanding why, despite this, it continues.

Strategy in the 21st Century: The Continuing Relevance of Carl von Clausewitz, by Lennart Souchon (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2020). ISBNs: 3030460274 - 978-303046027. Lennart Souchon, a former naval officer, is a German strategist and scholar of political philosophy and military theory. He was the Director of the International Clausewitz-Center at the Military Academy of the German Armed Forces from 1999 to 2018 and founded the Clausewitz Network for Strategic Studies in 2008. He also served as Director of Studies at the German Federal Academy for Security Policy Study and is a senior member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. He is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Potsdam, Germany. His research focuses on strategic studies and on Clausewitz's strategic theory. This book presents a detailed discussion of Clausewitz's principal lines of thought and methods of implementation. It elaborates on his main objective of laying a foundation for the education of up-and-coming creative, knowledgeable and experienced future leaders and encourages reflection and study in strategic thinking in order to transform knowledge into genuine capability.