Enlightened War: German Theories and Cultures of Warfare from Frederick the Great to Clausewitz

[O]ffers a wide variety of topics, stimulating questions, and thought-provoking insights, and opens up a rich field for further research on the culture of war from the Enlightenment to the present day. ― EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION

Adding an important perspective to existing monographs on eighteenth-century military history as well as our understanding of the Enlightenment, Enlightened War is original in its conception and stimulating in its variety. It should lead to further . . . discussion of the subjects it addresses, especially those related to contemporary considerations of human rights and the legitimate use of violence. ― MONATSHEFTE

Comprehensive and welcome . . . . The strength of this well-rounded anthology rests in its interdisciplinary approach and ability to engage readers from a variety of fields. . . . Such a work is indispensable to scholars [in] history, philosophy, and literary and cultural studies, as well as women’s and gender studies. [It is also] an important addition to any graduate-seminar reading list on German culture around 1800 . . . . [A] significant and necessary addition to 18th- and 19th-century scholarship . . . . ― GERMAN QUARTERLY

Interesting essays that consider ways war and culture interact with and transform each other. ― CHOICE

Will make [readers] confront how Germany’s founding intellects embraced the unavoidability of war. ― GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW

PATRICIA ANNE SIMPSON is Professor of German at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

WOLF KITTLER is Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has published widely with monographs on Franz Kafka and Heinrich von Kleist. Recent publications on Impressionism as an effect of the chemical dye industry, on the history of the Greek alphabet from Euripides to Plato, on early wireless technology, on music in Jean Jacques Rousseau’s work, on the history of the concept of “risk,” and on transformations in perspective painting from Leon Battista Alberti to Salvador Dalí. Works in progress include: On Wings of Light: A Cultural History of Telecommunication from Antiquity to the Present, and Echo’s Echoes: From Freud to Lacan.