Phillips Thomas R. - Roots of strategy book 1: the 5 greatest military classics of all time

This collection contains the most influential military classics written prior to the nineteenth century. The Art of War by Sun Tzu is not only the oldest military work in existence but is unquestionably the greatest military classic in any language. It has had little influence in the western world but has guided Chinese and Japanese military thought for 2400 years.

The period of the Renaissance in Europe was also a period of military renaissance. And it was to the ancients that the European soldiers turned for instruction. Gustavus Adolphus was an ardent student of Xenophon. In the early eighteenth century, Chevalier Folards commentaries on Polybius were the most influential military work of the period. During all this return to the ancients, The Military Institutions of the Romans, by Vegetius, took the place of what we today would call field service regulations. In the Dark Ages, Vegetius work was circulated in manuscript form, but only the parts of it dealing with the attack and defense of fortified places were considered of value. As skill in war advanced those portions of Vegetius dealing with tactics, training, and organization became greatly appreciated.

It was through study of the ancients that Maurice de Saxe arrived at the innovations in marching and organization that cleared the way for improvements in the art of war made by Frederick the Great and Napoleon. Frederick the Greats Instruction for His Generals was soon overshadowed by the fame of Napoleon. As a consequence, it has not had great influence on military thought outside of Germany. In Germany, the principles expounded by Frederick the Great, as distinguished from details of operations no longer applicable, are still influential. No appreciation of German military ideals can be accurate unless the Instructions have been read.

The Maxims of Napoleon are the distilled wisdom of the greatest warrior of the western world. Since the time of Napoleon, one writer on warfare has exerted or may exert an influence as great as those in this collection. Clausewitz great work, On War, can be considered to have supplied the abstract theories for the conduct of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and World War I. Admiral Castex, of France, has also produced strategical studies of significance.

Little as modern historians like to admit it, great nations have been built by war, and it has been by war that they have been overthrown. Much history has been stultified by the failure of civilian students to pay any attention to the modification of military ideas and the improvements in military possibilities. Thus, it was Napoleons ability to use the military possibilities of his time that set the course of history in Europe. Today, the dark clouds of war again seem to be lowering and threaten to make more profound changes and deal greater destruction than ever before.

It is hoped that this volume, containing the most influential military works of the past, may increase appreciation of the effect of military ideas on the course of history and the fate of nations, and assist in demonstrating the historical importance of military thought.

Thomas R. Phillips 1940