Frederick the Great on the Art of War

New York: The Free Press, 1966. First Printing. Hardcover. Very good/Fair. xvi, [2], 391, [7] pages. Illustrated endpapers. Illustrations. Notes. Appendices. Glossary Selected Bibliography. Index. DJ scuffed with small tears. Inscribed by the editor. Jay Luvaas has been a scholar and teacher of military history for more than thirty years. He has taught at Allegheny College, the U.S. Military History Institute at Carlisle Barracks, and the U.S. Army War College, where he was the first Professor of Military History. Jay Luvaas was one of America's leading military historians and published many notable books during his career, including The Education of An Army, Frederick the Great on the Art of War, Dear Miss Em, and Napoleon on the Art of War. "Napoleon on the Art of War" was the culmination of three decades of work. During his distinguished career, he served as the Director of the Flowers Collection of Southern Americana at Duke University Library. He was the first civilian to be appointed as Visiting Professor of Military History at the United States Military Academy. He also taught at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA, where he served as Professor of Military History to 1995. He was honored in 1997 as a Distinguished Fellow of the Army War College. He twice received the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal from the Department of the Army for his many contributions to the educational mission of the U.S. Army. He also co-edited the highly popular series of U.S. Army War College Guides to many Civil War battlefields, including Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, and Chancellorsville. Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, initiated the Seven Years' War in 1756; outfought the formidable French, Russian, and Austrian armies aligned against him; and established Prussia as a major power, thereby decisively influencing the next two centuries of European history. He was also a brilliant military thinker whose observations arose from extensive battlefield experience. This volume presents a balanced selection from Frederick's writings on strategy, tactics, and mobility; the problems of logistics and a two-front war; the combined use of infantry, cavalry, and artillery; the history of the Prussian army; the critical battles of the Seven Years' War; generalship as an art; and much more. A majority of this material is translated here for the first time in English and available nowhere else. The result is an invaluable glimpse into the inner thoughts of a military genius.