George F. Kennan: An American Life [Hardcover]

John Lewis Gaddis (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 10, 2011

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.

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

We can be grateful to John Lewis Gaddis for bringing Kennan back to us, thoughtful, human, self-centred, contradictory, inspirational - a permanent spur as consciences are wont to be. Masterfully researched, exhaustively documented, Gaddis's moving work gives us a figure with whom, however one might differ on details, it was a privilege to be a contemporary. -- Henry A. Kissinger New York Times Book Review Kennan's life maps right onto twentieth-century political history, and no one is better qualified than Gaddis to lead the way through it ... Gaddis has written with care and elegance, and he has produced a biography whose fineness is worthy of its subject. -- Louis Menand New Yorker Well worth the wait. George F. Kennan: An American Life works brilliantly as a piece of intellectual history, and as a biography of a fascinating and complex man. Fortunately, both Gaddis and Kennan write beautifully. -- Gideon Rachman Financial Times

About the Author

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; and was a 2005 recipient of the National Humanities Medal.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The; First Edition edition (November 10, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594203121
• ISBN-13: 978-1594203121
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

137 of 140 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Magnum Opus of a Master Historian November 11, 2011

By Tiger CK

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

What happens when one of the most gifted historians of the Cold War gains unprecedented access to the diaries and personal papers of one of the most influential statesmen of the twentieth century? Answer: A Pulitzer Prize worthy biography that sheds new light on George F. Kennan's life both in and outside of public service. There have been numerous other biographies of Kennan and his role in developing the Cold War policy of containment but no work to date has explored the connections between the public and private dimensions of Kennan's life with anything near the depth or insight of Gaddis's new biography.

Kennan was, in many ways, one of the most puzzling twentieth century statesmen. As an American diplomat stationed in Moscow at the dawn of the Cold War, Kennan wrote his famous "long telegram" that explained in detail the sources of Soviet conduct and laid out a plan for how the United States could counter Russian expansionism. The long telegram and Kennan's anonymously authored "X Article" both helped foreign policy makers to define and articulate a new approach to dealing with the Soviet threat. Yet despite his status as an architect of American containment policy, Kennan would eventually become a critic of many of the policies carried out in the name of the doctrine he had helped to create. Kennan argued strongly against crossing the 38th parallel during the Korean War and even more passionately against U.S. involvement in Vietnam both of which he saw as highly flawed applications of his doctrine.

Much of this has been covered before by other scholars, including John Lewis Gaddis. Indeed Gaddis's earlier work Strategies of Containment helped to illuminate both the depths and limits of Kennan's influence on American Cold War foreign policy. What is new here is the addition of Kennan's personal reflections on the critical events of the Cold War as they developed. Drawing on Kennan's personal correspondence, his diaries, and numerous interviews with Kennan and his family members, Gaddis demonstrates the relevance of Kennan the man to Kennan the statesman. The book shows Kennan to have been an insecure and in many ways deeply flawed human being whose neurotic nature helped to shape his view of international politics and effected his behavior as a statesmen. At times, his impatience led him to make poor judgments in his career. Much of Gaddis's previous work has focused heavily on broad historical trends and structural issues. I was pleasantly surprised by the tenderness with which he writes about his subject's personal life.

Gaddis is sympathetic toward Kennan but balanced. He rightly notes that Kennan played an invaluable role in shaping a policy that ultimately did contain the spread of communism and bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union. In many ways, Kennan understood the limitations of the Soviet Union long before the vast majority of his colleagues in the foreign service or in Washington did. But despite his close relationship with Kennan, Gaddis does not shy away from pointing out his flaws. He describes Kennan's extramarital affairs, his ethnocentrism and even some of the strange, inexplicable episodes in Kennan's life such as his request for suicide pills when he was stationed in Moscow. This in depth coverage allows us to understand Kennan's character in a way that we previously could not.

George F. Kennan: An American Life will without question be the definitive work on the statesman for years if not decades to come. It will reshape our understanding not only of Kennan but also of American foreign policy during the Cold War in significant ways.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "He saw what others saw, but in different colors" December 15, 2011

By A. Jogalekar TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

During his long life, George Frost Kennan had insights into history, international relations, Soviet psychology and American foreign policy that were unmatched among his peers. He was a multifaceted individual who excelled at many things, among them diplomacy, history, writing and farming. And he had a complex relationship with a country whose national interests he did so much to delineate and channel. John Lewis Gaddis brings us a panoramic and definitive biography of this great American that excels in three ways.

Firstly, it does an excellent job of giving us the bare facts. For more than twenty years Gaddis was intimately connected to the Kennan family as a biographer and friend. This has allowed him to gather a mountain of information from Kennan's copious diaries, interviews with him and his family members, colleagues and friends, and foreign and domestic policy documents from the era that Kennan lived in. Added to this vast repository is Gaddis's own treasure trove of expertise, drawn from his long career as one of America's most important Cold War Historians. Thus he has accurate and well-written accounts of all important episodes in Kennan's life including his intimate familiarity with Russia, his famous long telegram and "Mr. X" article in Foreign Affairs leading to the strategy of containment, his increasing disillusionment with Cold War policy, his second career as a historian and his waning years as a sharp critic of American politics. Wherever possible Gaddis always lets Kennan speak in his own voice. He also gives us a real feel for Kennan's qualities including his vast intellect, his love and knowledge of foreign cultures and languages, his ability to pen magnificent and sensitive prose and most importantly, his marvelous sense of the tragic that allowed him to gain perspicacious insights into people, places and events. Just like his close friend Robert Oppenheimer, Kennan was "a man who was extraordinarily good at doing a lot of things but still maintained a tear-stained countenance". It would be hard if not impossible to top this huge stack of material on Kennan that Gaddis has gathered.

Secondly, Gaddis provides us with a superb sense of Kennan's remarkable personality and especially drives home the fact that George Kennan was a man of contradictions. Throughout his life Kennan held resolute opinions about the events he observed and orchestrated, yet he could be troubled by self-doubt and uncertainty. He went to great lengths to make sure his government and people understood their relations with the world. Yet he always remained deeply ambivalent about America and especially the young generation which he sometimes saw as superficial and self-centered. He alternated between professing a love for his country and constantly considering himself as an outsider who was more comfortable among foreign peoples. This dichotomy between being intimately familiar with the internal workings of the system and preferring to remain on the outside also carried over into Kennan's role as a diplomat and advisor. Kennan probably knew more about Russian culture and history than any other American of his generation and his insights were incalculably unique. But although he was instrumental in charting the course of American policy during the early Cold War and seemed like the ultimate insider, in some sense he remained the perpetual outsider, never at ease in the corridors of Washington and always convinced of the flaws in his government's policies. Personally too Kennan displayed contradictions. He was a family man devoted to his wife for seventy years, yet had affairs. He suffered from ulcers throughout his life and could be easily stressed, yet he was a remarkably hardy individual who used to work long hours on his farm and traveled to inhospitable places alone. And he could be an intellectual elitist who could still shun the trappings of influence and wealth (as an undergraduate he stayed out of all the elite clubs at Princeton for instance) and who could understand the pain, hopes and suffering of the common man.

Finally, Gaddis leaves us with a prescient set of reasons why George Kennan's life and work is still as relevant to this country's interactions and character as it always was. Gaddis tells us that Kennan's key philosophy of understanding other cultures (and especially "enemy" cultures) as deeply as we can and engaging with them with a gentle but firm hand is key to foreign policy. For most of his life Kennan opposed military engagement and nation-building and while he believed in displays of strength, he always believed they should be in the form of diplomatic policy, strength of character and moral force. This is a lesson that should guide us far into the future.

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The many sides of a Cold Warrior December 12, 2011

By Paul Gelman

Format:Hardcover

In 1981, George Kennan agreed to cooperate with the eminent historian of the Cold War, John Lewis Gaddis, in the writing of the biography of his life. Little did Gaddis know then that he would have to wait for many years to see his volume published, since Kennan had one condition for Gaddis: that the biography could be published only after Kennan's death. In fact, Kennan died when he was 101 years old and now we can finally read this magnificent and brilliantly written book, which offers many insights into the mind and deed of one of the most famous Cold Warriors.
The book is extremely long and has 700 pages of text, followed by more than seveny pages of detailed notes. It is not an easy read but it captivates you from its very beginning.
After the first two chapters which describe Kennan's childhood and education, the author starts depicting in great detail the diplomatic life on Kennan. Most of the time Kennan did not live in the United States due to the nature of his work and career, which started in 1926. He married Annelise Sorensen in 1931 and had two prematurely appointments as Ambassador to the Soviet Union and then to Yugoslavia.
However, the best two reference points in Kennan's life would be the famous "Long Telegram" and the "Foreign Affairs" article signed "X". These two things brought him to the limelight of the Col War diplomatic world. The first one, known as the "Long Telegram" was indeed more than five thousands words long(but not eight thousand, as it was presumed hitherto) and came in five parts. This he did by dictating it to his secretary while he was ill and in bed. In it, Kennan explained to the State Department and to the whole world that Russia was always beset by a fear of the outside world. Paranoia, if you would like it. That was the main reason why Marxism came into being: it was an ideological belief whose main purpose was to undermine the West.
Kennan knew Russia very well and Gaddis describes the many travels of Kennan inside this vart country. As a result of this famous telegram, which had a tremendous impact on the Amerian psyche and policy makers, he was recalled to Washington where he was given a new job. This time he was appointed by George Marshall as chief of the Policy Planning Staff. Kennan was responsible writing and contributing to the new American foreign policy after the end of WW2. Kennan correctly predicted, for example, that the Soviet Union would not accept the Marshall plan.
But the highlight of his career was the second item mentioned before, namely: the famous article for "Foreign Affairs", which was published in the June/July edition of 1947. It was here whence the famous word "containment" had its origins. The title read: "The Sources of Soviet Conduct". He hid his true identity because he did no0t want it to be knwon that an employed diplomat is the one who was formulating the foreign policy .However, it took only some days to identify the author who, amazingly, concluded and predicted that the Communist regimes would actually collapse. This happened in 1989 and onwards. The policy of containment became the main pillar of the Americcan foreign policy until the days of the Reagan presidency.
In the sixties and seventies, Kennan became a strong critic of the American way of life. To quote from the chapter called:"Prophet of the Apocalypse", Kennan wote that the United States "is destined to succumb to failures which cannot be other than tragic and enormous in their scope. They would arise from the familiar evils of industrialization, urbanization, commercialization,secularization, and environmental degradation".
The only rememdy would be "a much simpler form of life, a much smaller population, a society in which the agrarian component is far greater in relation to the urban component...In this sense I am, I suppose, an 18th-century person". Kennan despised many things about his fellows and the pornography shops in Washington were one of his targets. Juvenile delinquency and nuclear weapons were his adiitional targets.He objected the Vietnam war. He was a great intellectual who authored many books and articles and was one the Wise Men in the seventies. He enjoyed lecturing, despite many health problem which afflicted him and in 1989 was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President George Bush. He was inspired a lot by the writings of Edward Gibbon and many times made references to him.
In the coda of the book, Professor Gaddis asked Kennan to sum up his life in some words. Kennan expressed his wish to be remembered as a teacher:...."on understanding Russia; on shaping a strategy for dealing with that country (whose simple people he loved);on the danger that in pursuing that strategy too aggressively, the United Stated could endanger itself; on what the past sugested about societies that had donbe just this; on how to study history ;on how to write; on how to live".
This excellent volume, which used almost all the possible sources a historian could have at his disposal,including a 20000-page diary, a separate "dream diary" of reflections and the 300-boxex of additional papers at Princeton, is not only a great biography about a versatile man. It is also a superb history of the great ideological conflict which spanned almost half ot the previous century, written by a master historian about a unique American.