Review: Arms and Doctrine: On War, Clausewitz and the State
| Author | John C. Cairns |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207803300308 |
| Published date | 01 September 1978 |
| Date | 01 September 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
ARMS
AND
DOCTRINE
ON
WAR
Carl
von
Clausewitz
Edited
and
translated
by
Michael
Howard
and
Peter
Paret.
Introductory
essays
by
Peter
Paret,
Michael
Howard,
and
Bernard
Brodie,
with
a
commentary
by
Bernard
Brodie.
Princeton: Princeton
University
Press,
xii,
717PP,
$18.50
CLAUSEWITZ
AND
THE
STATE
Peter Paret
New York:
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press,
1976,
viii, 467pp,
$21.95
This
new
translation
of
Clausewitz's
famous
unfinished
work
is
all
that
an
English-language
reader
could
ask.
It
reads
clearly
and
the distinc-
tion
of
the
translators
is
all the
guarantee
one
could
require
that
it
is
faithful
to
the original.
Together
with Peter
Paret's
concise
essay
on
the
origins
and
development
of
the
manuscripts,
Michael
Howard's
brief
examination
of
Clausewitz's
changing
fate,
and
Bernard
Brodie's
dis-
cussion
of
the
usefulness
of
the
work
in
our
time
(naturally
much
more
a
pi&e
d'occasion
than
the
other
two
essays),
Brodie's
substantial guide
to
the text
affords
the
kind
of
assistance
students
of
war
will
welcome
and
few
readers
find
available when
they
approach
the
great
unread
classics
of
our
culture.
This
surely
is
the
edition
in
English
of
On
War
for
our
time
and
some
long
time
to
come
-
though
the
fate of
previous
editions
since
Colonel
J.J.
Graham's
just
over
one
hundred
years ago
suggests
the
wisdom
of
avoiding
an absolute statement.
As
Paret
points
out, other
writings
by
and
about
Clausewitz
may
yet
come
to
light.
Other
translators and
editors
may
discern
the
need for
addenda
and
corrigenda.
At all
events,
this
splendidly
produced
volume
seems
about
as
nearly
ideal
as
one
could hope
for.
If
it
can
one
day
appear
in
a
less
expensive
edition
for
the
benefit of
students,
there will
be more
hope
of
the
library
copies
coming
through
with
fewer
marks
of
the
self-
absorbed,
insensate
savagery
which
systematically
defaces
and
destroys
the accumulated
holdings
of
our
university
depositories.
Clausewitz
is
enjoying
a
modest renaissance,
and
this
new
text
will
sustain
it.
A
kind
of
divide
now
separates
what
the
best
of
his
inter-
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