ABSTRACT
Any early nineteenth-century textbook or theoretical work in chemistry, physics, or geology would be of little more than anecdotal value for the same profession's contemporary practitioners. It would certainly not be looked to as a source of important relevant insights, nor would it have value for the instruction of modern students, let alone be expected to represent the state of the art in an important profession. In many fields, in fact, the pace of change is so rapid that a major theoretical work can become obsolete within a generation or a decade, and textbooks must be updated or replaced every few years. Yet in the study of war - a subject of the utmost importance for the survival of modern civilization, and an area in which even one mistake can be disastrous for a whole society or generation - no theoretical work has yet surpassed Carl von Clausewitz' unfinished study, On War (1832), in its richness of wisdom and heuristic value.
