On War

First I’d like to apologize, I know this isn’t really within the general topics of discussion but I’m looking for something and this is the most likely place to find it. I’ve been listening to On War by Carl Von Clausewitz read by Timothy Ferguson. I understand he is often on this forum. I don’t know if any email so I’m trying here. I was wondering where I could find the last 2 volumes of the book since you said you finished it years later. I do suppose you could read this book as an understanding of war to add to world building. But anyway thank you for your time and I hope you are all well.

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Vom Kriege was never completed.

What is there in German is the following:

What is there in English is typically abridged - or pretty hard to get like the 1943 translation (Random House) of O. J. Matthijs Jolles.

An English translation for free is available from Project Gutenberg (not accessible in Germany for copyright reason):

https://www.gutenberg.org%2Ffiles%2F1946%2F1946-h%2F1946-h.htm&usg=AOvVaw1g_4xHZJIlNG-UFLs3zEOG

I can't tell whether you would be happy with English abridged versions like Paret-Howard-Heuser.

Hi.

It's at https://librivox.org/on-war-volumes-two-and-three-by-carl-von-clausewitz/

As One Shot notes, On War was a set of notes put together by Clausewitz's wife after his death, so they have some omissions.

Sorry if I caused any confusion, I was listening to the book, and finished listening to volumes two and three and was wondering if the last two where ever completed, or perhaps I'm simply misunderstanding something.

Ever completed meaning by the person reading the book, not the book itself.

Does it end in him saying a general who loses a mountainous region should be brought before a court marshal? I just want to make sure I've listened to everything since a lot can be lost in different versions of historical books. Anyway thank you for being kind enough to read it in the first place and taking the time to reply.

There are 10 books of Vom Kriege. Many are incomplete, books 9 and 10 very hard to get, and most (perhaps even all) translations to English are also abridged to boot.

So indeed I can still not guess for what purpose you need to read a more complete Vom Kriege.

For any kind of research into the text proper (history, critical work, finding out what Clausewitz really meant, ...) you need the complete German version.

For professional interest just into its contents you might take some serious dollars in hand and try to find an old exemplar of the 1943 Random House translation.

For just reading the first 8 books in abridged versions and in English, at leisure or as a student, the Project Gutenberg free edition or the Paret-Howard-Heuser Oxford World's Classics edition might be better suited.

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For breakfast today, I retrieved my Clausewitz from the top shelf and checked the organisation and numbering of books.

Clausewitz' Collected Works were after his death 1831 edited and published by his widow, Marie von Clausewitz, Gräfin von Brühl, in 10 volumes. But of these only 3 volumes made up Vom Kriege.

Vom Kriege itself consists of 8 books. Clausewitz completed the first 6 books of them. He stated 1827 the wish to rewrite them, which remained unfulfilled. He describes the last 2 books, Der Angriff and Kriegsplan, as sketches.

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