"The entire work is a treat for military specialists and lay readers alike."—H-Net Reviews
"[A] salutary, thought-provoking addition to the literature by and about Clausewitz, who remains the model of how to write operational military history."—Michigan War Studies Review
"This valuable translation provides important insights on Clausewitz’s understanding of history and its role in shaping his theoretical work. The translation is brilliantly executed. Highly recommended."—Choice
"This is a valuable book for anyone with an interest in the period or in military theory."—New York Military Affairs Symposium Review
"The translation is excellently done, with copious footnotes and annotations by the authors. For anyone wanting to understand how history, strategy, and political science interact in Clausewitz’s master work, this is an outstanding example of these ideas examined under wartime conditions."—New York Journal of Books
“Clausewitz’s account of Napoleon’s 1796 Italian campaign is a historical study of strategy, written in the late 1820s with the intent of solving ‘strategic questions’ in the author’s quest for a coherent theory of war. This new scholarly edition, carefully translated and edited by Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle, provides historians and students of strategy with a valuable tool to better understand On War.”—Anders Palmgren, director of the Joint Advanced Command and Staff Course, Swedish Defence University
“History was the principal medium used by Carl von Clausewitz as he developed the ideas that he expressed in On War. He wrote much more of history than he did theory, and yet his historical writings have struggled to find an English-language audience. This translation of Clausewitz’s history of the 1796 Italian campaign, Napoleon’s first triumph and therefore much studied by his admirers, is to be warmly welcomed.”—Hew Strachan, author of Clausewitz’s On War: A Biography
“The continued relevance of Clausewitz’s theories is well known; what is less understood is the historical studies that led him to these ideas. Never before translated into English, this book makes readily accessible Clausewitz’s analysis of one of history’s greatest minds through Napoleon’s formative campaign. Joining well-known translations of Clausewitz’s histories of the 1812 invasion of Russian and the 1815 Waterloo campaigns, Napoleon’s 1796 Italian Campaign illustrates Clausewitz’s development of some of his most critical concepts for the first time in English.”—Mark T. Gerges, associate professor of Military History, US Army Command and General Staff College
“Interested in Clausewitz but lack the stomach (and the Sitzfleisch) for On War? Here is the antidote, one of the Prussian sage’s more snackable historical works. Napoleon’s 1796 Italian Campaigns has it all: flash campaign narrative, deep analysis, and snide remarks about Jomini. Murray and Pringle are erudite commentators and smooth translators. A volume for novices and expert alike.”—Robert M. Citino, author of The Wehrmacht’s Last Stand: The German Campaigns of 1944–1945
