Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. xi, 784 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

1. A remarkably revealing view of how this greatest of Cold War strategists came to doubt his strategy and always doubted himself.
2. In the late 1940s, George Kennan wrote two documents, the 'Long Telegram' and the 'X Article, ' which set forward the strategy of containment that would define U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union for the next four decades. This achievement alone would qualify him as the most influential American diplomat of the Cold War era. But he was also an architect of the Marshall Plan, a prizewinning historian, and would become one of the most outspoken critics of American diplomacy, politics, and culture during the last half of the twentieth century. Now the full scope of Kennan's long life and vast influence is revealed by one of today's most important Cold War scholars. Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis began this magisterial history almost thirty years ago, interviewing Kennan frequently and gaining complete access to his voluminous diaries and other personal papers. So frank and detailed were these materials that Kennan and Gaddis agreed that the book would not appear until after Kennan's death. It was well worth the wait: the journals give this book a breathtaking candor and intimacy that match its century-long sweep. We see Kennan's insecurity as a Midwesterner among elites at Princeton, his budding dissatisfaction with authority and the status quo, his struggles with depression, his gift for satire, and his sharp insights on the policies and people he encountered. Kennan turned these sharp analytical gifts upon himself, even to the point of regularly recording dreams. The result is a remarkably revealing view of how this greatest of Cold War strategists came to doubt his strategy and always doubted himself. This is a landmark work of history and biography that reveals the vast influence and rich inner landscape of a life that both mirrored and shaped the century it spanned.

Subject

1. Ambassadors
2. United States
3. Diplomats
4. Soviet Union
5. World politics
6. Biographies
7. Ambassadors > United States > Biography
8. World politics > 1945-1989
9. Kennan, George F (George Frost), 1904-2005
10. Cold War (1945-1989)
11. United States > Foreign relations > Soviet Union
12. United States > Foreign relations > 1945-1989
13. Cold War > Diplomatic history
14. Biography
15. 1945-1989
16. Diplomatic relations
17. Diplomats > United States > Biography
18. Diplomacy
19. Soviet Union > Foreign relations > United States

Genre/Form

1. Biographies.
2. Biography.

Contents

1. Childhood : 1904-1921 -- Princeton : 1921-1925 -- The Foreign Service : 1925-1931 -- Marriage and Moscow : 1931-1933 -- The origins of Soviet-American relations : 1933-1936 -- Rediscovering America : 1936-1938 -- Czechoslovakia and Germany : 1938-1941 -- The United States at war : 1941-1944 -- Back in the U.S.S.R. : 1944-1945 -- A very long telegram : 1945-1946 -- A grand strategic education : 1946 -- Mr. X : 1947 -- Policy planner : 1947-1948 -- Policy dissenter : 1948 -- Reprieve : 1949 -- Disengagement : 1950 -- Public figure, private doubts : 1950-1951 -- Mr. Ambassador : 1952 -- Finding a niche : 1953-1955 -- A rare possibility of usefulness : 1955-1958 -- Kennedy and Yugoslavia : 1958-1963 -- Counter-cultural critic : 1963-1968 -- Prophet of the Apocalypse : 1968-1980 -- A precarious vindication : 1980-1990 -- Last things : 1991-2005.

Call number

1. JFE 16-26

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 703-749, 751-762) and index.

Awards (note)

1. Winner of the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.
2. Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

Author

1. Gaddis, John Lewis.

Title

1. George F. Kennan : an American life / John Lewis Gaddis.

Imprint

1. New York : Penguin Press, 2011.

Type of content

1. text

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. volume

Bibliography

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 703-749, 751-762) and index.

Awards

1. Winner of the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.
2. Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

Chronological term

1. 1945-1989

LCCN

1. 2011021786

ISBN

1. 9781594203121 (hardcover)
2. 1594203121 (hardcover)

Research call number

1. JFE 16-26