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Title: Excellent Book!
Review: As a survey of military thought from the Enlightenment up to the Cold War, I found Professor Gat's book to be comprehensive, thought-provoking, well researched, and well written. In particular the effect of established opinions on the nature of war and how it should be waged, and the reaction of succeeding generations to these established opinions is very interesting. Specifically, the military theories developed during the Enlightenment and the reaction of military theorists to the victories of Napoleon (such as Clausewitz) were of special interest. As Professor Gat himself remarks, there is a tendency to treat the period before Clausewitz as a kind of intellectual void, during which there was no discussion of the theory and practice of war at all. In fact there was a great deal of controversy on military matters taking place in both France and Germany. Admittedly this is a specialist book, not for everyone. But for anyone interested in this topic, I highly recommend this book.
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