A Game of War

by Alice Becker-Ho

Summary

Founder and theorist of the Situationist International, and author of the massively influential book The Society of the Spectacle , Guy Debord (1931–1994) was also a connoisseur of military strategy. In his first volume of autobiography, Panegyric , Debord recounted his interest in classical war theory as espoused by the Prussian military theorist, Carl von Clausewitz. Debord devised and wrote the board game and book A Game of War in collaboration with his wife, Alice Becker-Ho, who has assisted with the production of this publication. As he writes in Panegyric : “I have studied the logic of war. Moreover I succeeded, a long time ago, in presenting the basics of its movements on a rather simple board game. I have played this game and, in the often difficult conduct of my life I have utilized lessons from it.” The game became Debord’s obsession in the years before his suicide in 1994. This first translation of the book (by Donald Nicholson-Smith, himself a past member of the Situationist group) comes slipcased with the board and counters.