American Visions of Europe: Franklin D. Roosevelt, George F. Kennan, and Dean G. Acheson [Hardcover]

John Lamberton Harper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 1994

American Visions of Europe sets three learned and elegantly written portraits against the background of the dramatic events and foreign policy controversies of the twentieth century. John Lamberton Harper's careful examination of three men and their policies--Roosevelt's partial internationalism, aiming at the retirement of Europe from world politics while avoiding American entanglement; Kennan's partial isolationism, aspiring to restore Europe's centrality and autonomy through temporary American engagement; and Acheson's accommodating interventionism, establishing the United States as a permanent power in Europe--creates a new and unique look at the "American Century" through its most prominent protagonists.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In the past 50 years, many people have influenced the course of American foreign policy. Yet if one were to name three prominent players of the diplomatic game, probably none would rank higher than Roosevelt, Kennan, and Acheson. Harper (European studies and American foreign policy, John Hopkins Univ. Bologna Ctr., Paul H. Nitze Sch. of Advanced International Studies) uses collective biography to investigate the lives and contributions of his subjects. He reveals how their thoughts and actions determined America's approach toward Europe and the world since 1940. Roosevelt sought to limit European involvement in world politics after the war, while Kennan and Acheson worked to create a stable postwar Europe under American control. Harper's writing is clear, concise, and jargon-free, and his research is solidly based on both primary and secondary sources. This well-written work should be required reading for anyone interested in the personalitics and policies of the early, formative years of the Cold War. Recommended for academic libraries and for all history and political science collections.
Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames, Ia.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Harper (European Studies/Johns Hopkins; America and the Reconstruction of Italy, 1986) creatively melds biography with cultural and diplomatic history in this triptych of portraits of important architects of US policy toward Europe during the ``American Century.'' America's ``historic ambivalence'' toward Europe, the author argues, is reflected in the lives of his three subjects, each of whom decisively influenced America's European policy during and after WW II. Franklin D. Roosevelt was proud of his Dutch ancestry and his descent from American Revolutionaries and, unlike other members of the American establishment, never identified with Great Britain. Although he came of age during an era of American isolationism, he was also shaped by youthful experiences in Germany and by his tenure as Woodrow Wilson's assistant secretary of the Navy. The result, Harper contends, was Roosevelt's policy of ``partial internationalism,'' which he defines as ``aiming to arrange the retirement of Europe from world politics while avoiding direct U.S. entanglement.'' George Kennan was, in Harper's view, an aesthete whose ``romantic egotist'' sensibilities were shaped by his midwestern upbringing, his Princeton education, and his preWW II work in the US Foreign Service in Germany; he was also a conservative whose ``partial isolationism,'' resulting in the policy of containment of Soviet communism, was intended ``to restore Europe's centrality and autonomy through temporary U.S. engagement.'' Dean Acheson was a lawyer-statesman who sought to establish the US as a permanent presence in Europe. Harper concludes that the differing, clashing philosophies of these and other leaders often produced results at variance with those intended by US policymakers, and asserts that US ambivalence continues, with America supporting European unity but recoiling before its probable consequences. An absorbing study of the linkages between personal and diplomatic perspectives-- illuminating as historical background in this period of European integration and diminished American power. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 26, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521454832
• ISBN-13: 978-0521454834
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,859,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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