Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) was born in Burg, Prussia, and obtained his commission as an officer in the Prussian army at the age of fifteen. He entered the War Academy of Berlin in 1801 and quickly earned a reputation as a brilliant and promising student. When Prussia agreed to become an ally of Napoleon in 1812, Clausewitz joined the Russian army and took part, from the Russian side, in the Campaign of Moscow. He then rejoined his own army and took part in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He later became director of the War Academy in Berlin, where he developed his theory of war.
Peter Paret is professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study. He has written widely on the history of war and society and on the relationship of art, society, and politics. He is the author of "Clausewitz and the State" (Princeton), now in its third revised edition. Most recently he gave the 2008 Lees Knowles Lectures at Cambridge University, on which this book is based, and was guest curator for the spring 2009 exhibition Myth and Modernity at the Princeton University Art Museum.
