"A rich and complex book . . . a dazzling display of erudition . . . . Aron was attracted to Clausewitz because of his relevance to our own predicament . . . When Clausewitz's message was ignored, the results were disastrous (in World War I, for example) . . . . Clausewitz's thought had a profound influence - particularly, as Aron shows, on Lenin and on Mao. It raises questions that are central to our understanding of the 'global age: . .The thread that runs through all the analyses is the relation between political ends and military means. . . . Erudition and the most incisive common sense result in profound political judgment" - Stanley Hoffmann, Chairman, Center for European Studies, Harvard University, in The New Republic
"Aron's illuminating search for contemporary relevance in von Clausewitz is a splendid introduction to that most important of thinkers: - Edward N. Luttwak, Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University; author, The Pentagon and the Art of War
"A brilliant philosopher of war." - Michael Carver, The New York Times Book Review
"No military professional or student of war should pretend to a knowledge, let alone to operational applications, of the ideas and generalizations of Clausewitz without first having read and reflected on Aron's interpretation." - Donald S. Marshall, Strategic Review
"Raymond Aron was one of the great intellectuals of Europe's liberal tradition, and France's most lucid political writer in this century." - Scott McConnell, Commentary
Clausewitz: Philosopher of War was regarded by Raymond Aron as his most important work. In this study. Professor Aron first analyzes the ideas of the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz, whose brilliant, original treatise On War has deeply influenced relations between nations and their conduct of war in the 19th and 20th centuries. Then he examines major events of our century-World War I, the Russian Revolution, the rise of fascism, the triumph of Mao in China, Vietnam, the Soviet-American nuclear confrontation - in the light of Clausewitz's theories. Clausewitz, both scholarly and passionate, is a profoundly challenging encounter with the great political, strategic, and moral issues that continue to confront the citizens of all nations.
Raymond Aron, the historian, philosopher and sociologist who was widely regarded as one of postwar Europe's greatest political thinkers, died in Paris in 1983. Professor Aron was a journalist, a professor of sociology at the Sorbonne, and a prolific author whose books include The Opium of the Intellectuals, Peace and War Between Nations, and The Imperial Republic.