Best Historical Novels About Carl von Clausewitz

Carl von Clausewitz

1780–1831

Carl von Clausewitz was a Prussian soldier and military theorist whose experience of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars shaped one of the most influential bodies of writing on warfare. Entering the Prussian army as a boy, he fought France in the 1790s and was captured after Prussia’s defeat in 1806. He later joined the reform circle around Scharnhorst. When Prussia was forced to support Napoleon in 1812, Clausewitz entered Russian service rather than fight for the French emperor.

Clausewitz returned to Prussian service during the campaigns that defeated Napoleon and later directed the Prussian War Academy. His unfinished treatise On War, edited and published after his death by his wife Marie, examined war as a political and social phenomenon rather than a purely technical activity. Concepts such as friction, uncertainty, the interaction of attack and defence, and the proposition that war is a continuation of politics by other means made his work foundational to modern strategic thought.

In C. S. Forester’s Commodore Hornblower, The mission combines diplomacy involving Crown Prince Bernadotte and Tsar Alexander I, an assassination attempt, cooperation with Carl von Clausewitz and naval support during the defence of Riga.

Historical novels and book series featuring Carl von Clausewitz (1 series)

Hornblower Saga in Order

by C. S. Forester 12 books 4.3(138,286)

The Horatio Hornblower novels follow a Royal Navy officer from his first service as a midshipman during the French Revolutionary Wars to senior command after the defeat of Napoleon. The books combine shipboard life, naval combat, intelligence work, diplomacy and the practical burdens of command with Hornblower’s private…