∎ Download Gratis George F Kennan An American Life John Lewis Gaddis 9781594203121 Books

George F Kennan An American Life John Lewis Gaddis 9781594203121 Books

Download As PDF : George F Kennan An American Life John Lewis Gaddis 9781594203121 Books

George F Kennan An American Life John Lewis Gaddis 9781594203121 Books

John Lewis Gaddis obtained from the great man much time and personal access, and was granted privileges to Kennan’s archives. Gaddis has produced a very profound, insightful work on George Kennan‘s Grand Strategy. Kennan promulgated this strategy through the Long Telegram, his famous writing as author „X“ in the journal, Foreign Affairs, and in position papers of the Policy Planning Staff under George Marshall and Dean Acheson. The reader walks with Kennan through the 1920‘s when, under the Rogers Act, the man in his young 20‘s enters the very first generation of a newly established class of professional, career officers of America‘s foreign service. The reader, with the young Kennan, learns to love Russian culture and history as the State Department sponsors his immersive graduate studies in Russian language and history combined with work-study programs in consulate offices. Kennan, like Dean Acheson, was present at the creation. Kennan underestimated his own power of influence, both at the end of World War II, the outset of the Cold War, and over the seventy years remaining in his life when a grateful nation kept seeking his counsel despite his seeking of scholarly refuge from the empyrean heights of the Advanced Institute at Princeton University. Kennan’s greatness emerged in strategic vision promulgated with force of language shaped by Shakespeare, John Donne and Edward Gibbon. A very inward, reflective, even spiritual man, Kennan always felt responsible towards children and posterity; he always took other persons very seriously in their humanity. These spiritual qualities combined with poetic powers that found new forms of strategic expression patterned for new world situations as they arose — his foresight as early as the 1940’s of Communism’s ultimate fall under its own weight due to the unwieldiness of the Soviet Union’s far-flung empire; his opposition to the Vietnam War as well as the bombing of Hanoi; as well as his proposal in the 1980‘s of strategic arms reduction (to replace arms limitation) with an ultimate goal to eliminate weapons of mass destruction overall. Gaddis does not shrink from candid review of Kennan’s considerable limitations and faults. Gaddis’ work is well-balanced. My first contact with George Kennan came 50 years ago as a college junior in international relations, having been assigned Kennan‘s concise „Lenin and the West.“ Kennan‘s vision struck that college junior forever, and Gaddis‘ biography is one of the few expressions that measures up to the great man‘s legacy. This work should be read in conjunction with the very profound work of Robert Beisner, „Dean Acheson and the Cold War“.


Tags : George F. Kennan: An American Life [John Lewis Gaddis] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>Winner of the Pulitzer Prize Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award Selected by The New York Times Book Review</i> as a Notable Book of the Year </b> <b>Drawing on extensive interviews with George Kennan and exclusive access to his archives,John Lewis Gaddis,George F. Kennan: An American Life,Penguin Press,1594203121,International Relations - Diplomacy,Ambassadors - United States,Cold war - Diplomatic history,Diplomats - United States,Kennan, George F,Soviet Union - Foreign relations - United States,United States - Foreign relations - 1945-1989,United States - Foreign relations - Soviet Union,United States;Foreign relations;1945-1989.,United States;Foreign relations;Soviet Union.,World politics - 1945-1989,World politics;1945-1989.,1945-1989,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Historical,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Biography: historical, political & military,Cold War,Diplomatic History,Diplomats,HISTORY Modern 20th Century,Historical - General,HistoryModern - 20th Century,Modern - 20th Century,POLITICAL SCIENCE International Relations Diplomacy,Soviet Union - Foreign relations - United States,United States,United States - Foreign relations - 1945-1989,United States - Foreign relations - Soviet Union,United States;Foreign relations;1945-1989.,United States;Foreign relations;Soviet Union.,World politics,World politics - 1945-1989,World politics;1945-1989.,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Historical,HISTORY Modern 20th Century,Historical - General,HistoryModern - 20th Century,Modern - 20th Century,POLITICAL SCIENCE International Relations Diplomacy,Biography Autobiography,1945-1989,Biography,Cold War,Diplomats,United States,World politics,Diplomatic History,Biography & Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Biography: historical, political & military

George F Kennan An American Life John Lewis Gaddis 9781594203121 Books Reviews

A terrific piece of scholarship and fine writing, exploring the life of the man who as much as anyone else, including President Truman, set the tone for American containment policy toward the Soviet Union. This is an important book, and a great choice of subject on the part of Professor Gaddis, preeminent Cold War scholar.
Gaddis is well know to have an Encyclopedic knowledge of the Cold War. He also had Kennan's blessings in writing this biography. Gaddis does an adequate job of reviewing Kennan's life - but then tends to be more of a perfunctory emotional quality to this work than should have been present with someone as dynamic as George Kennan. This is the official biography by the official biographer - but many of the qualities of Kennan's spirit seem to me missing. I strongly suggest that folk actually read Kennan to pick up these missing pieces.

Gaddis though has written some fine work on the Cold War, although I strongly disagree with his take on the Truman Doctrine.
It would be next to impossible to read about the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union without George Kennan's name appearing. The man's containment argument carried the day in Washington D.C., helped our nation avoid war with the U.S.S.R., and, therefore, prevented needless deaths on both sides. For about three decades, I've always wondered why this guy? Sure, Mr. Kennan was acknowledged as a very smart person when it came to Russian history, but it's difficult to believe he was the only big brain kicking around D.C. that had a firm grasp of the Russian mindset as well as Bolshevism.

Mr. Gaddis does an excellent job in, not only explaining Mr. Kennan's importance and how he became indispensable, but also the full measure of the man. Warts and all. The author rightly had concerns about taking on a biography about such a thin-skinned man while the dude was still alive. Mr. Gaddis explains the conditions which were put in place for him to attempt the biography. His intimate access to Mr. Kennan's boatloads of written arguments; the man's family, friends and foes; and most importantly exclusive use of Mr. Kennan's life-long personal diary culminates into not a gushy lovefest but a very balanced, absorbing biography. Mr. Gaddis's book certainly deserved the Pulitzer Prize. Like everyone else, Kennan had qualities that were admirable and other aspects of his personality that were either annoying or made him a good candidate for being hit on the side of the head with an iron skillet.

The story is about a brilliant wonk whose ability to right cogent, poetic assessments that influenced policy makers is what separated him from the other bright bureaucrats. Man oh man, the guy rubbed elbows with the big guys; Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Bush 41, and Clinton as well as General MacArthur, Secretary of States George Marshall, Dean Acheson, and George Shultz. Then there's Robert Oppenheimer, Mikhail Gorbachev... look, my fingers are getting tired in listing all the power brokers. You get the picture. Also, his love of Russian history and culture and ability to speak perfect Russian made him a cut above the rest. At his core, Mr. Kennan had an oddly wonkish heart and the unstable emotions of your stereotypical artist. The man was completely, laughably clueless about contemporary American culture.

In the week I was reading "George F. Kennan," not one person who asked me had any idea who he was. That's a shame. Mr. Kennan strongly believed that style was as important as substance. He joined the two and made himself into a valuable asset. Mr. Gaddis seems to have taken the same attitude while writing his Kennan biography and the result is an outstanding work which deserves a wide readership.
John Lewis Gaddis obtained from the great man much time and personal access, and was granted privileges to Kennan’s archives. Gaddis has produced a very profound, insightful work on George Kennan‘s Grand Strategy. Kennan promulgated this strategy through the Long Telegram, his famous writing as author „X“ in the journal, Foreign Affairs, and in position papers of the Policy Planning Staff under George Marshall and Dean Acheson. The reader walks with Kennan through the 1920‘s when, under the Rogers Act, the man in his young 20‘s enters the very first generation of a newly established class of professional, career officers of America‘s foreign service. The reader, with the young Kennan, learns to love Russian culture and history as the State Department sponsors his immersive graduate studies in Russian language and history combined with work-study programs in consulate offices. Kennan, like Dean Acheson, was present at the creation. Kennan underestimated his own power of influence, both at the end of World War II, the outset of the Cold War, and over the seventy years remaining in his life when a grateful nation kept seeking his counsel despite his seeking of scholarly refuge from the empyrean heights of the Advanced Institute at Princeton University. Kennan’s greatness emerged in strategic vision promulgated with force of language shaped by Shakespeare, John Donne and Edward Gibbon. A very inward, reflective, even spiritual man, Kennan always felt responsible towards children and posterity; he always took other persons very seriously in their humanity. These spiritual qualities combined with poetic powers that found new forms of strategic expression patterned for new world situations as they arose — his foresight as early as the 1940’s of Communism’s ultimate fall under its own weight due to the unwieldiness of the Soviet Union’s far-flung empire; his opposition to the Vietnam War as well as the bombing of Hanoi; as well as his proposal in the 1980‘s of strategic arms reduction (to replace arms limitation) with an ultimate goal to eliminate weapons of mass destruction overall. Gaddis does not shrink from candid review of Kennan’s considerable limitations and faults. Gaddis’ work is well-balanced. My first contact with George Kennan came 50 years ago as a college junior in international relations, having been assigned Kennan‘s concise „Lenin and the West.“ Kennan‘s vision struck that college junior forever, and Gaddis‘ biography is one of the few expressions that measures up to the great man‘s legacy. This work should be read in conjunction with the very profound work of Robert Beisner, „Dean Acheson and the Cold War“.