This collection of essays published, over the last nine years, by Virgilio Ilari, is the first book of a new series “La Fucina di Marte” (“The Forge of Mars”) taking his name from a collection of military essays published in Venice in 1641. The book is not only a collection of insightful and highly interesting essays of military history but is also a testimony to Virgilio Ilari’s longstanding struggle, as chairman of the Italian Society of Military History, to raise the dignity and quality of Military History in Italy (“Combat pour l’histoire militaire dans un pays réfractaire”). The introduction is appropriately dubbed “Ermattung”, which should have been the original title of the book. It is by no chance that the first essay is dedicated to Carl von Clausewitz and his reception in Italy. It was originally published in English in 2010 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Clausewitz Gesellschaft. The Clausewitzian tune is the leitmotiv of the whole collection as Ilari has been, over 40 years, one of the supporters of the “Clausewitz Renaissance” in Italy. […]

Antologia Militare rivista interdisciplinare della società italiana di storia. N.1 Anno 2020