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4.0 

George F. Kennan

By John Lewis Gaddis
George F. Kennan by John Lewis Gaddis digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award

Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year

Drawing on extensive interviews with George Kennan and exclusive access to his archives, an eminent scholar of the Cold War delivers a revelatory biography of its troubled mastermind.


Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, this extraordinary biography delves into the mind of the brilliant diplomat who shaped U.S. policy towards the Soviet Union for decades. 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.

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16 Reviews

4.0
“John Lewis Gaddis has written a biography that captures the complexities of one of the lesser known architects of US foreign policy during the Cold War. Gaddis’s description of Kennen’s personal life is well done and clearly illustrates the conflicts within Kennen regarding his marriage, family, and career. However, his description of Kennen’s foreign policy influence is somewhat problematic, with Gaddis concluding that Kennen is the only person who could have made the containment theory palatable to upper level executives while also shaping the realist theory in foreign relations. Kennen’s impact on US policy is debatable. Kennen never held high political office and Paul Nitze had more influence on the creation and implementation of containment theory. Gaddis was friends with Kennen and this shows in his writing, as he gives Kennen more credit than was due. However, Gaddis has written a comprehensive, engaging biography on one of the more important junior foreign service officers to have served the US. This long book is well worth the read as long as the reader keeps in mind the tinted lens through which Gaddis examines Kennen’s life.”

About John Lewis Gaddis

John Lewis Gaddis is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of History at Yale University. His previous books include The United States and the Origins of the Cold War; Strategies of Containment; The Long Peace; We Now Know; The Landscape of History; Surprise, Security, and the American Experience; and The Cold War: A New History. Professor Gaddis teaches courses on Cold War history, grand strategy, international studies, and biography; has won two Yale undergraduate teaching awards; was a 2005 recipient of the National Humanities Medal; and is the winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for George F. Kennan.

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