Carl von Clausewitz, Historical and Political Writings

by Peter Paret and Daniel Moran

History gave Clausewitz the basis for his theoretical understanding of war: his recognition of its timeless elements, which could not be converted to eternal strategic and operational rules because history also revealed the changes over time in social, intellectual, and psychic realities and in technological development. In his youth it was his recognition of the difference between conditions before and after the French Revolution that started Clausewitz on the path toward a theoretical analysis of war, and he continued studying and writing history until almost the end of his life.