In 1792, Carl von Clausewitz entered the Prussian Army as a boy of twelve, beginning a military career during which he fought on the front lines of every major campaign of the Napoleonic Wars.

As a professional soldier and military theorist, Clausewitz was deeply impressed with French militarism and with Napoleon's leadership and strategy. From personal observation of Napoleon's rapid movements and massive troop concentrations, Clausewitz wrote his masterpiece On War, which has proved to be the outstanding military text of modern times. Here, Clausewitz perfected the concepts of total war and blitzkrieg, the repercussions of which have been immense.

In this first biography of Clausewitz in English, Roger Parkinson serves the reader doubly. On War, like Das Kapital, is an influential and comparatively seldom-read seminal work, abused by misquotation and misunderstanding. Clausewitz little suspected how far this book could be taken out of its context by German militarists, provoking a series of blitzkriegs climaxed by the First and Second World Wars. Parkinson, in addition to providing a finely drawn portrait of a man of action, puts On War in context. In an age of men striving for peace it is important to understand the methodology of war.