Which translation of Clausewitz's On War (And which one SHOULD you have?) Be careful what you're buying—the on-line bookstores (including Amazon) frequently
confuse the different editions and translations! You wouldn't want to
end up with the atrocious Penguin edition, edited
in 1968 by Anatol Rapoport.
Clausewitz's magnum opus, On War, has been translated into virtually every major language. The Clausewitz Homepage strives to report information about the study of Clausewitz in any field of study and any language in which we find the subject discussed. Our focus is necessarily on military and strategic materials in English, followed by German, French, Spanish/Portuguese, and Japanese. (An "Other"-language bibliography is HERE. All of our bibliographies are listed HERE.) Books in print by or about Clausewitz in various languages are available from the Clausewitz Bookstore. Any translation from one language to another necessarily involves interpretation not only of the language but of the conceptual content. Even the most honest and competent translation inevitably includes both technical errors and arguable or controversial—if not flatly wrong—conceptual interpretations. And not all translators are honest and/or competent. Further, even editors working in the original language have been known to take liberties with the writer's original words, sometimes because the writer (like most authors) genuinely needed editorial assistance. Other editorial interventions are prompted by political fear or ambition, conceptual confusion, or contrary conviction (of either a technical or ideological nature). Changes in the native version obviously can be reflected in translations. All of these factors have certainly had an impact on the translation of Clausewitz, so which edition you get can be important. German Editions The most useful general bibliography for Clausewitz studies in German can be found in the 19th German edition (1980) of Clausewitz's Vom Kriege, edited by Werner Hahlweg: Carl von Clausewitz, Vom Kriege, Neunzehnte Auflage, ed. Werner Hahlweg (Bonn: Ferd. Dümmlers Verlag, 1980). Hahlweg researched the history of the text and unscrambled Clausewitz's original wording as much as possible from the interventions of later editors. Although there are numerous other versions available, we strongly recommend Hahlweg's. See Die Clausewitz Buchhandlung—Amazon Deutschland.
NOTE: A complete German text of Vom Kriege is on-line here and can be searched electronically. English Translations and Various Editions Thereof There have been four more-or-less complete and a few partial English translations of On War. These have been published in significantly different forms—eight of which are listed and described below. The story behind the Anglo-American study of Clausewitz is told in Christopher Bassford's Clausewitz in English: The Reception of Clausewitz in Britain and America, 1815-1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994)—the full text of which is on-line. 1. Howard/Paret translation (1976/1984).Carl von Clausewitz, On War, eds./trans. Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976, revised 1984). This is the complete, standard (though probably not the best), modern English translation of On War. It was published in 1976 (revised in 1984) by British historian Sir Michael Howard and his student Peter Paret, a German emigre to the United States. Their translation, often considered the most readable, grew out of an academic "Clausewitz Project" launched by Paret at Princeton in 1962 and an initial translation done by a retired member of the British Foreign Office, Angus Malcolm.
Some Drawbacks: Despite its many qualities, the Paret translation has been criticized for presenting Clausewitz in too dry and rationalistic a tone, and there are many places where the wording is awkward or otherwise arguable—translating Clausewitz's important extended metaphor of a wrestling match as a "duel," etc. The editors' decision not to be bound by too literal a translation is both a strength and a weakness: it makes for greater readability overall as well as for greater clarity of many of the book's arguments, but it also channels the reader exclusively towards particular interpretations and sometimes eliminates the possibility of other readings. Perhaps more important, Paret is scientifically and mathematically unsophisticated and does not appreciate the significance of certain scientific arguments and illustrations in On War—most notably the nonlinear imagery of the randomly oscillating magnetic pendulum in the famous discussion of the fascinating "trinity," where the translation is particularly clumsy. The Howard/Paret edition also suffers from a near-useless index. Added only in 1984, it covers only the names of individuals and places—hardly what the reader looks for in On War. However, a computer-generated word-index to this translation is available HERE. It seeks to make the conceptual content as accessible as possible. Unfortunately, it applies only to the Howard/Paret translation (and then only to the Princeton version, not the Knopf edition), since it directs the reader to specific page numbers rather than to Book/Chapter/Paragraph.
Other Versions (in rank order by usefulness) 3. Trans. O.J. [Otto Jolle] Matthijs Jolles, 1943. The Jolles translation is owned by Random House, though it was done for military reasons by the University of Chicago during WWII. The only editions of which we are aware are 1) the original 1943 edition from Randon House; 2) a 1950 republication by Infantry Journal Press (republished yet again by AUSA in 1953), and 3) a recent compilation: Karl von Clausewitz and Sun-Tzu, The Book of War: Sun-Tzu, The Art of Warfare, and Karl von Clausewitz, On War, ed. Caleb Carr, with an interesting introduction by Ralph Peters (New York: The Modern Library, 2000). Otto Jolles was a native German-speaker and a literary specialist on Clausewitz's era, though not a military thinker himself. His translation is excellent—indeed, better in many key respects than the Paret translation, though there have been criticisms of the German edition from which Jolles worked. The main problem with this edition is simply that it is not the standard (Howard/Paret) version—and all that this implies in terms of locating quotations, checking citations, etc. 4. Translator J.J. Graham (1873). British Army Colonel James John Graham (1808-83) was an exceptionally earnest, honest, and self-effacing translator, so there are no particular distortions or biases in his version. Unfortunately, his German was not particularly fluent, his translation was excessively dense and literal, his English was Victorian, and the sources for the background information he offered were weak. His original 1873 edition, printed in a single volume (the complete text of which is on-line HERE), was not a commercial success. It is now quite obsolete, though it has historical importance. However, the original Graham translation actually had a conceptual index which, though idiosyncratic, was far superior to any subsequent index (especially the useless one provided by Paret in 1984). The pure Graham version is not often found outside of special collections, but many later publications are modifications or abridgements of it. If you have any version of the Graham or Graham/Maude translation, but especially the twisted Penguin version, we advise you to get the modern Howard/Paret edition (discussed above). You can directly compare the original German and Graham's 1873 English translation HERE. 5. F.N. Maude's edition of the Graham translation (1908). All subsequent versions of the 1873 Graham translation are derived from the 3-volume 1908 editing by Colonel F.N. Maude, which was very successful commercially and was reprinted in 1911, 1918, 1940, 1962, and 1966. (Most editions retain Graham's useful index.) Because of copyright issues rather than its intrinsic merits, it provides the basis for most subsequent condensations and abridgments of On War, e.g., the 1997 " , abridged and with an introduction by Louise Willmot. Unfortunately, Maude enthusiastically inserted all sorts of anachronistic late 19th/early 20th-century imperialist and Social Darwinist notions into his introduction and notes, notions that have consequently come to be attributed to Clausewitz himself by sloppy readers, journalists, editors, and historians. [Maude's introduction is HERE.] You can directly compare the original German and Graham's 1873 English translation HERE. The full Graham/Maude version, in its easily identifiable 3-volume set, is widely available in libraries. If you have any version of the Graham or Graham/Maude translation, but especially the twisted Penguin version, we advise you to get the modern Howard/Paret edition (discussed above). 6. Trans. Edward M. Collins, 1962. Clausewitz, Karl von, War,
Politics, and Power: Selections from On War, and I Believe and Profess, ed/trans. Edward M. Collins [Colonel, USAF] (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company,
1962). This is a partial translation containing, in addition to pieces
of On War, a short essay on patriotism and the value of the state,
labeled "I Believe and Profess." We don't see either any particular flaws
or any particular value in this translation, but it is very incomplete
and reflects very much a Cold War view of the subject—in short, not very
useful. 8. Trans. Miss [A.M.E.] Maguire, w/notes by the translator's father, T. [Thomas] Miller Maguire (London: William Clowes and Sons, Limited, 1909). This book originally ran as a serial in The United Service Magazine, March 1907March 1909. NOBODY uses this extraordinarily sloppy translation, full of the Maguires' own ideas and assertions. If by some odd chance you have it, put it in a glass case, get it bronzed, or burn it—but READ something else. LINKS Word Index to the 1976/84 Howard/Paret translation of On War. Find that idea or quote you're looking for in your paper copy. Read the 1873 Graham translation of On War on-line. Various On-Line versions Read On War in : Clausewitz,Theorie de la grande guerre, trans. Lt-Colonel de Vatry, 3 vols., Paris: L. Baudoin, 1886-1887. Read On War in the original German: Clausewitz, Vom Kriege. Directly compare the original German and Graham's 1873 English translation HERE. |
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