George Kennan: A Writing LifeThere were two George F. Kennans. The first was the well-known diplomat and ambassador to the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia—a tough political realist and man of the world who gained fame as the theorist of America’s Cold War “containment” strategy. This was a “persona” that Kennan adopted in order to carry out his professional responsibilities. The second, largely unknown, but real George Kennan was a writer and aesthete—a shy, lonely man who felt alienated from both his country and his times, and a man who made major contributions to American literature. Thus argues Lee Congdon in George Kennan: A Writing Life, a groundbreaking study of Kennan’s life and thought. Congdon narrates Kennan’s legendary work in the foreign service, his later career as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, and the schools of thought to which he made significant contributions: political realism, antidemocratic social and political criticism, Spenglerian gloom, and conservative cultural analysis. Congdon concludes that notwithstanding his great accomplishments as a diplomat and geopolitical strategist, Kennan merits consideration above all else as an original and penetrating American writer. |
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Contents
The Institute for Advanced Study | 65 |
Traditions of Thought | 127 |
Mistress | 171 |
Copyright | |
2 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
admired Advanced Study Agrarians Allied American Foreign Policy Austria-Hungary Berlin Bismarck Bolshevik Bullitt C. V. Wedgwood Chekhov Christian civilization communist concerning Cragged Hill critical cultural Czechs Decline democracy democratic diary diplomacy diplomatic Dreikaiserbund Eastern Eastern Rumelia Europe European fact Fateful Alliance folder foreign service France Franco-Russian alliance George F George Kennan Germany Gibbon historian Hitler human Institute for Advanced John Lukacs Kennan believed Kennan Papers Kennan wrote Kennan's view knew later lectures Lenin Letter liberal limited literary live Memoirs military modern moral Morgenthau Moscow national interest never Niebuhr nuclear weapons numbers Oppenheimer peace Policy Planning Staff political President principles problems Reagan realistic recognized regime responsibility Review of Books Robert Oppenheimer Russian sense Sketches social Soviet leaders Soviet Union Soviet-American Relations Stalin things thought threat tion told Truman Doctrine tsar United University Press USSR West Western writing York Review
Bibliographic information
| Title | George Kennan: A Writing Life |
| Author | Lee Congdon |
| Publisher | ISI Books, 2008 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | Jul 16, 2010 |
| ISBN | 1933859717, 9781933859712 |
| Length | 219 pages |
| Subjects | › Biography & Autobiography / Political |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |