The Art of War — Antoine-Henri de Jomini
Précis de l’Art de la Guerre, 1838. Translated by Mendell & Craighill, 1862 (public domain).
The Mendell–Craighill translation was the standard West Point text through the 19th century and shaped American military thought before Clausewitz displaced Jomini in the 20th.
Chapters
- Chapter I — Statesmanship in its Relation to War
- Chapter II — Military Policy
- Chapter III — Strategy
- Chapter IV — Grand Tactics and Battles
- Chapter V — Mixed Operations — Partly Strategical and Partly Tactical
- Chapter VI — Logistics, or the Practical Art of Moving Armies
- Chapter VII — Formation of Troops for Battle — Combined Use of the Three Arms
Why it Belongs in the Canon
- The other founding theorist of modern war — Clausewitz’s contemporary.
- Jomini’s geometric approach (lines of operation, decisive points, interior lines) dominated US Civil War doctrine and Napoleonic analysis long before On War was widely read.
- Permanent vocabulary: interior lines, exterior lines, base of operations, line of operations, decisive point.
Cross-References
- Clausewitz — On War (contrast: Jomini’s prescriptive geometry vs. Clausewitz’s philosophy of war)
- Sun Tzu — Art of War
- Mahan — Influence of Sea Power (Mahan extends Jomini’s framework to the maritime domain)