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335, [1] pages. Preface dated November 20th, 1925. 19 diagrams. Footnotes. Spine torn and frayed at top and bottom. Edges and corners rubbed. Cover bowed a bit. Sticker inside the front cover, Some page indentations and soiling. Pencil marks inside the back cover. Major-General John Frederick Charles "Boney" Fuller CB CBE DSO (1 September 1878 - 10 February 1966) was a senior British Army officer, military historian, and strategist, notable as an early theorist of modern armored warfare, including categorizing principles of warfare. With 45 books and many articles, he was a highly prolific author whose ideas reached army officers and the interested public. He explored the business of fighting, in terms of the relationship between warfare and social, political, and economic factors in the civilian sector. Fuller emphasized the potential of new weapons, especially tanks and aircraft, to stun a surprised enemy psychologically. Fuller was commissioned into the 1st Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry (the old 43rd Foot), and served in South Africa from 1899 to 1902. During the First World War, Fuller was a staff officer with VII Corps in France, and from 1916 in the Headquarters of the Machine-Gun Corps' Heavy Branch which later became the Tank Corps. He helped plan the tank attack at the 20 November 1917 Battle of Cambrai and the tank operations for the Autumn offensives of 1918. His Plan 1919 for a fully mechanized offensive against the German army was never implemented. After 1918 he held various leading positions, notably as a commander of an experimental brigade at Aldershot. The Foundations of the Science of War is a compilation of material presented by Fuller when he was chief instructor, Staff College, Camberley. It is the culmination of his theoretical writings and an early attempt to fit mechanization into the fabric of European warfare. In this work, Fuller presents a comprehensive theory of war. In this work Fuller addresses, among other topics: The Value of Military History, The Object of War, The Military Instrument, The Principles of War, and the Application of the Science of War. Fuller was prohibited by the then Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Lord Cavan, from publishing this while assigned to the General Staff. Lord Cavan believed that it was contrary to discipline for serving officers to publish books because these might cal into question the validity of the Manuals. He could not prohibit all officers from publishing but he could enforce his view on General Staff officers. Fuller asked that this tenure at Camberley be reduced and subsequently published this important work when no longer on the General Staff [see Trythall, "Boney' Fuller, page 106].
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