Clausewitz: His Life and Work

by Donald Stoker

The classical distinctions between "strategy," "operations," and "tactics" in warfare derive from two basic sources―Carl von Clausewitz and Antoine-Henri de Jomini, both veterans of the Napoleonic wars who translated their experiences into books outlining general precepts about the nature and rules of military engagement. Nearly two centuries after the publication of these works, Jomini has been all but forgotten, but Clausewitz's On War remains perhaps the most significant work of military theory ever written. He has become a global brand, one constantly refreshed by a flow of books and articles debating his ideas and arguing what he truly meant in various passages of On War. The masterwork appears in an array of translations sweeping from Arabic to Vietnamese. Military staff colleges the world over use Clausewitz's text, largely to prepare their officers for staff positions and higher command.

Military historian Donald Stoker here offers an incisive biography of Carl von Clausewitz, sketching out his life and career and exploring the various causes that led to the formulation of his theories about war. Though On War remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1831, Clausewitz's devoted wife, Marie, organized the papers he had left behind and arranged for their publication. The ten volumes of Clausewitz's collected works appeared from 1832-1837, with On War encompassing the first three volumes. Stoker considers both the merits and detriments of the works, but also pays careful attention to the life and experiences of Clausewitz himself. In doing so, he notes that those discussing Clausewitz's legacy as a theorist today have largely forgotten what was most important to him: being a soldier, and one of renown. Clausewitz is often remembered merely as staff officer, someone pushing papers and not in the midst of battle. Though Stoker notes that Clausewitz certainly spilled his share of ink, he also spilled blood ― his as well as that of the enemy. He experienced the mass warfare of his age at its most intense and visceral. He knew what it was like to be wounded, to be a prisoner, to have friends killed and wounded, to suffer hunger and thirst, and to have the heat and cold try to kill him after the enemy's best efforts had failed. Success on the field of battle-success meaning victory as well as distinguishing one's self above one's comrades, who are also brave and daring men ― this, Stoker shows, is what drove Clausewitz.

Stoker also considers the continuing relevance of Clausewitz's work today, particularly focusing on its effect on strategic thinking in American foreign policy. The result is a brilliant reassessment of both the man and his legacy, one that adds to our understanding of Clausewitz and his place in today's military and political landscape.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Military History, Germany

354 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Donald J. Stoker is an American military historian. He earned a bachelor's degree (1989) and a Master's of Arts (1990) from Valdosta State University.
He is Professor of Strategy and Policy for the U.S. Naval War College's program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California."

Reviews

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stoker’s work on Clausewitz is an admirable adjunct to Peter Paret’s “Clausewitz and the State”, which traces his intellectual development. His stated purpose in writing this book was to focus on Clausewitz’s role in the different campaigns in which he served, from 1796 to 1815, with a particular focus on 1812-1815, in order to provide a basic introduction to his life as a soldier. In other words, this is a biography. He is NOT trying to tie Clausewitz’s life events to his writings; that aspect of this book is an adjunct to his main thesis. Stoker does an excellent job in addressing his thesis, and throughout the book, points to events which may have had an impact on some of his writings.

Stoker mines a tremendous number of the primary sources on Clausewitz, especially letters between him and his wife, Marie. (Stoker acknowledges the assistance of Vanya Eftimova Bellinger, whose work on Marie von Clausewitz was in pre-publication at the time Stoker was writing this work.) The bibliography is first-class and deep. This work does a very good job in fleshing out Clausewitz’s life as a soldier and how these experiences may have informed his writings. Stoker goes into considerable detail on the Prussian political situation following Jena, as well as giving a very good description of the Russian campaign of 1812 and the campaigns of 1813-1815. There is a tremendous amount of description and analysis packed in this book on both the political and military situations, and how these events impacted Clausewitz as a soldier. He also examines the attempts to reform the Prussian army by Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and assisted by Clausewitz. As stated above, Stoker keeps his eye on Clausewitz’s main writings and shows the reader possible influences, not just “On War”, but on some of his campaign studies, as well. It is clear that Stoker met his stated purpose, to give us a better view of Clausewitz the man, with his human strengths and failings. This book is well within the reach of a general reader and is a fascinating read.

My only issue with this book is with the maps. Stoker includes plenty of maps, but most are hard to read because the French positions are illustrated in a dark font, while the allied positions are shown much lighter. I had to look at the maps under a strong light in order to see the detail. There were also a couple of maps (eg. page 239) that required me to use a magnifying glass!

[Lynn Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just excellent. Chapter 11 and the conclusion are particularly good.

[Ian Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Human nature hasn't changed, and in the end, while Clausewitz's masterwork is dismissed as merely a guide about how to wage war, it is in fact a book that shows us how to think about war.

The name of Carl von Clausewitz is today spoken of in the same breath as the giants of his age such as Metternich and Wellington, but for different reasons and from having had a radically different career trajectory.

Always more of an intellectual than a charismatic leader, he spent most of his career as a staff officer, rarely commanding in the field, and only making a relatively junior general's rank long after any combat was over. And despite participating usefully in many battles and being on the overall winning side of the wars (not to mention his extreme good luck in surviving largely unscathed), he never found himself present at any significant individual victories and was pained by the absence of such glory.

He was a boy in uniform who saw combat at 12 and was nominally an officer at 13. A man with a tenuous claim to nobility (hence 'von') built more on aspirational bluster than substance. A one time prisoner of war and a patriot who spent much of his career in a Russian uniform so as better to serve Prussia's interests as he perceived them.

An apparently devoted husband sharing a true intellectual meeting of minds with Marie. A prodigious writer who published relatively little in his lifetime but a great deal thereafter. A theorist, certainly, but also a historian. He arguably elevated the study of war to an intellectual level of philosophy in a way that has rarely - perhaps never - been achieved before or since.

Donald Stoker's biography concisely elucidates all these aspects, and has an overall theme of illustrating the manner in which experiences impacted on Clausewitz's thoughts and writings, without ever exclusively focusing on one aspect or style of re-telling. Thus at times it feels like a report of the Napoleonic Wars centred on one who was there for many of the crucial moments and especially the long road from Borodino, to Leipzig, and to Waterloo.

At others it's a character piece on an individual who reads as brilliant but not especially likeable. At others still it is about his relationship with Marie. In this respect, Stoker acknowledges a debt to Vanya Eftimova Bellinger, whose biography of Marie was in the works concurrently and appeared a little over a year thereafter. I look forward to reading it.

Then of course it provides an introduction to Clausewitz' theory and histories, their background, their subsequent influence, and their contemporaneous context within the development of Napoleonic tactics and strategy. And on top of that, there is some insight into Prussian and broader European society. This makes it a worthy companion piece to Christopher Clark's Iron Kingdom, which Stoker references heavily and I've feted elsewhere.

Stoker runs the risk of criticism for his book being a 'Jack of All Trades', but there is a place for such a piece amid the myriad more specific works centred on or merely touching on Clausewitz. For a reader such as myself with some background in Prussian and Napoleonic history, and military strategy ala Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, this is a near-perfect intermediary step to those more narrow and detailed works.

[The Warfighting Society · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stoker’s work thus far is a very illuminating portrait of a man who is mostly known for theory rather than activity on the battlefield. Stoker shows that, far from being an egghead cloistered in a room thinking about war, Clausewitz was an active soldier who participated in many of the campaigns of the Napoleonic era - including Prussia’s disastrous defeat at Jena-Auerstadt - and thus his views on war were deeply informed by battlefield experience. Moreover, by examining Clausewitz’ personal correspondence, the reader gains a rich picture of a man whose desire for battlefield honor was often frustrated by political machinations; who was deeply conflicted about how to serve a Prussian realm he cared for but whose diplomatic alliances changed according to the fortunes of war; and who cherished his wife Marie and keenly felt her absence during his many campaigns. There’s a little too much passive voice for what one would expect to be a rigorously edited work, but that’s nit-picking. I’m only about 65% of the way through and would highly recommend it to anyone seeking to understand the man behind the theory.

[Eurydicegirlgmail.Com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clauswitz 1812 History Sparked my curiosity

Reco!mended.
As a general reader , this well done bio Helps me by grounding the Rich material of On War in a personalised context.

Who would have suspected this erudite, analytic and historically informed cultivated man had spent a great part of his childhood and adult life in gruelling exhausting campaigns, as a front line combat Officer , mastering the art of disengagement & fighting withdrawal or as an expert quartermaster of massive troop deployments ; interspersed with tutoring young princes in historical analysis , military strategy and command conduct?

Extraordinary man.

[Martin Samuels · Rating 3 out of 5]

There can be few serious students of warfare who have not read, or at least dipped into, Clausewitz's famous treatise On War. But many of them, myself included, probably have only passing knowledge of Clausewitz's military career and life. It is this gap that Donald Stoker, Professore of Strategy & Policy for the US Naval War College, has sought to close with this volume.

Stoker traces Clausewitz's career, from his arrival in the Prussian Army in 1792, at the tender age of 11, through his extensive service during the Napoleonic Wars, up to his untimely death in 1831. He notes that his primary focus is on Clausewitz's role in the various military campaigns in which he served, and in this respect the book is a clear success. Stoker brings out that Clausewitz was far from being simply a staff officer, whose knowledge of war and warfare was derived from theory and concept alone. Far from it. As Stoker shows, Clausewitz was involved in some three dozen battles or skirmishes, received a bayonet wound to the head and had his horse shot from under him - hardly the characteristics of a desk-bound officer. Stoker also shows how Clausewitz was driven by dreams of battlefield glory, both as the route to promotion, but also as a means to recover his position in the Prussian Army following his defection to the Russian flag in 1812. In so doing, Stoker provides an interesting and accessible introduction to the campaigns of the period, and, of course, Clausewitz's own part in them.

As a means of exploring Clausewitz's life and personal military experience, the book must be accounted a significant success. It is clearly written and supported by numerous maps, though these are not always quite as clear as might be desired. The text is also accompanied by extensive notes, allowing specific issues to be followed up by the interested reader.

The book is perhaps less successful in the second part of its aim, in addressing Clausewitz's work. Of course, the quantity and variety of Clausewitz's own writings, and the mass of analysis and exegesis that exists on those writings by others, would make any comprehensive exploration almost certainly impossible. Stoker does a good job of noting the stages in Clausewitz's life where he produced his main works, placing them in their context and so providing useful illumination of the factors driving Clausewitz's thinking. But the book is not, and realitically could not be, more than an introduction to the breadth and depth of the issues, concepts and theories set out in Clausewitz's writings.

In conclusion, this is a very welcome work, which would be a very useful starting point for anyone who has an initial knowledge of Clausewitz's theories and wishes to start to place his thinking more into its context.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not just a biography of Clausewitz, but also with a fair amount of history of Prussia during this fascinating period. As someone who has spent a lot of time with Clausewitz's theory but less with Clausewitz as a person, I was both impressed and dismayed with aspects of the portrait that emerges here. Stoler's Clausewitz is brilliant but also vain, glory-seeking, arrogant, and in one brief but disturbing outburst profoundly anti-Semitic. Yet in other ways Clausewitz was an impressive figure; the book reminds us that Clausewitz was not just a theorist/war gamer type, but a life-long soldier with ample combat experience who saw plenty of the horrors of war first-hand. Of course, this fact alone is well-known, but seeing exactly what Clausewitz went through is nonetheless valuable. The book also makes it clear that Marie played an important role in his life. It will be interesting to see what the forthcoming biography of her, mentioned by Stoler, makes of her contribution to his military thought. It appears to have been much. The book is readadable and will be the title I recommend to students who want to learn more about Clausewitz himself and his time. The final part offers a decent synthesis of many of his main ideas, especially as thy appeared in On War.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

My extended review appeared on War on the Rocks on August 26th:

Clausewitz: The Fighting Soldier

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting history of the subject, but not as good at tying his life to his writing, at least not until the last chapter