Campagne de 1799 en Suisse et en Italie by C. von Clauswitz, Editions Champ Libre, Paris, 1979. 618 pg. Many think of Clauswitz as the military philosopher that wrote On War, the book that was as influencial on land warfare as Mahan's Influence of Sea Power was on naval strategy. It is seldom recognized that he also was a contemporary general of Napoleon and one of the more professional of the historians to write of what he saw. This work is the third piece I have found by Clauswitz, the other's being On War and his study of the 1813 campaign. The particular edition I am reviewing today is in French and, unfortunately, to the non-French speaker not a worthwhile purchase as it contains few charts, no maps, or appendacies. However, to the individual who speaks and reads a modicum of the language and is interested in the 1799 campaign, the last major campaign where Napoleon was not involved, this book is highly recommended. Though the detail included in the discussions of particular battles is limited, the text addresses a tremendous number of clashes ranging from major battles to the engagements of a few battalions. The text devotes a great deal of time analyzing the tactical and strategic situations, but does not give major consiideration on to the political history that parallels this period. The work, as its title suggests, covers the campaign in Switzerland and all of the Italian peninsula. The book is broken into nine major chapters. Each chapter begins with an analysis of the relative situations of the two forces. These chapters are then broken into five to ten page chapters that deal with a short segment of the action, usually culminating in a battle or major maneuver. It does not go into a detailed discussion of the position of this regiment or that demi-brigade. In fact, I do not recall the name of a single regiment appearing in the text, but it does give a consistant review of all the actions that occurred. This is the first work that I have seen on the 1799 campaign so I am unable to rate it in comparison to other similiar works. It is not based on first hand experiences, but in the text (which is not footnoted with sources) there is continual reference to official French documents, newspapers, and other period sources. It appears to be lacking in the outward trappings of the scholarly work, but I strongly beheve that it is unlikely to be surpassed as a study of a relatively obscure campaign. The Fox of the North by R. Parkinson, David McKay Co., Inc, N.Y., 1976, 253 pgs This work is a nice, general biography of one of the more important Russian Generals of the Napoleonic Wars, General Kutusov. It covers in limited detail the various battles and campaigns that Kutusov was involved in. It is not intended as a "battle book" and as a result better discussions of the various battles' are available. It is only what it perports to be, a biography. The book is veil researched and has an impressive bibliography, it is indexed, and has a few general maps. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in another view of one of the significant personalities of the Napoleonic wars. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 1 No. 58 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1981 by Emperor's Headquarters This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com