Carl von Clausewitz

Carl von Clausewitz (born June 1, 1780, Burg, near Magdeburg, Prussia [Germany]—died Nov. 16, 1831, Breslau, Silesia [now Wrocław, Pol.]) was a Prussian general and military thinker, whose work Vom Kriege (1832; On War) has become one of the most respected classics on military strategy. Clausewitz enlisted in the Prussian army in 1792, and in 1793–95 he took part (and was commissioned) in the campaigns of the First Coalition against Revolutionary France. In 1801 he...