Positivism, romanticism and military theory, 1815-1870; the German military school - its world-view and conception of war, 1815-1914; the cult of the offensive - the sources of French military doctrine, 1871-1914; from sail to steam - naval theory and the military parallel; Marxism, Clausewitz and military theory, 1848 to the Nuclear Age.
By the author of the acclaimed The Origins of Military Thought (Clarendon Paperbacks, 1991)
`Gat presents a great deal of historical and theoretical material
in a relatively brief compass.'
Foreign Affairs
`but it is not on the military side of its university that Dr Gat
operates, it is in the departments of history and political science
... And it is this which gives his work its depth and value ... he
is above all a historian of ideas ... he has written a very good
book ... The historiographical passages and bibliographical
footnotes are rich and useful, the general-historical foundations
of the work are admirably solid, and the exposition flows from
cover
to cover in a powerful and compelling stream.'
Times Literary Supplement
'The present volume ... extends and amplifies the basic argument
that Gat developed in his earlier book on The Origins of Miltary
Thought from the Enlightenment to Clausewitz, by far the most
frequently cited work in the notes to this one. His approach has
the merit of simplicity, and those who found the first volume
convincing will find little to complain about here.'
Daniel Moran, United States Naval War College, The Journal of
Military History
'In this most welcome sequel he extends his study to cover the
whole of the period from the Napoleonic era to the First World War.
A brief review can do scant justice to the quality of this book.
Its erudition is matched by the clarity of its presentation and
above all the originality of its concepts.'
Michael Howard, War in History 1994
`Gat's book must be lauded for the attempt it makes to remedy one
of the great omisssions in the historiography of strategic theory.
An especially worthwhile result of Gat's approach is the
fundamental criticisms it allows Gat to make of the popular
interpretation of pre-First World War French miltary thought, ...
the second important contribution of Gat's book is to show that the
19th-century European military had a coherent, convincing, and
applicable
view of war.'
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