John Lewis Gaddis
John Lewis Gaddis (born 1941 in Cotulla, Texas)[1] is a noted historian of the Cold War and grand strategy,[2] who has been hailed as the "Dean of Cold War Historians" by The New York Times. He is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University.[2][3] He is also the official biographer of the seminal 20th century statesman George F. Kennan.[4]
Gaddis is best known for his critical analysis of the strategies of containment employed by United States presidents from Harry S. Truman to Ronald Reagan, and for arguing that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's personality and role in history was one of the most important causes of the Cold War.[citation needed] His most recent work The Cold War: A New History (2005) examines the history and effects of the Cold War in a more removed context than previously possible.[5] Other important works include We Now Know (1997), an analysis of the Cold War from its origins to the Cuban Missile Crisis, incorporating new archival evidence from the Soviet bloc, and his revised edition of Strategies of Containment (2005), which analyzes in detail the theory and methods used to contain the Soviet Union from the Truman to Reagan administrations.
He received his doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin,[6] where he worked under Robert Divine.[citation needed] He taught at Indiana University and held visiting positions at the Naval War College, Princeton University, and the University of Helsinki before joining Ohio University in 1969.[6] At Ohio, he founded and directed the Contemporary History Institute[5] and was named a distinguished professor in 1983.[6] He served as president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations in 1992.[7]
In 2005, he received the National Humanities Medal.[8]
[edit] Publications
- The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941–1947 (1972; 2nd. ed., 2000).
- Russia, the Soviet Union, and the United States: An Interpretive History - (1978, 2d ed., 1990)
- Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy - (1982; 2d ed. 2005)
- The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War - (1987)
- The United States and the End of the Cold War: Reconsideration, Implications, Provocations - (1992)
- On Moral Equivalency and Cold War History Ethics & International Affairs, Volume 10 (1996)
- We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History - (1997) ISBN 0-19-878071-0
- The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past - (2002)
- Surprise, Security, and the American Experience - (2004)
- The Cold War: A New History, Penguin Press (2005). ISBN 1-59420-062-9 (US edition). The Cold War, Allen Lane (2005). ISBN 0-7139-9912-8 (UK edition). Summary of reviews
- Ending Tyranny: The past and future of an idea The American Interest (September–October 2008)
[edit] References
- ^ Days of Duck and Cover, Mark Alden Branch, Yale Alumni Magazine, March 2000.
- ^ a b Faculty listing, Yale Macmillan Center, retrieved 2010-02-25.
- ^ Cold Warmonger, Priscilla Johnson McMillan, New York Times, May 25, 1997. Review of We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History.
- ^ Celebrating a Policy Seer And His Cold War Insight, Douglas Brinkley, New York Times, February 17, 2004. Profile of Kennan on his 100th birthday, includes several paragraphs detailing his relationship with Gaddis.
- ^ a b A world divided: A leading historian evaluates the causes and ultimate collapse of the Cold War, Michael C. Boyer, Boston Globe, January 22, 2006.
- ^ a b c Historians will debate Cold War, Lewiston Daily Sun, January 23, 1989.
- ^ Past presidents, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, retrieved 2010-02-25.
- ^ Recognizing Good Works: Bush Awards Medals for Arts and Humanities, Jacqueline Trescott, Washington Post, November 11, 2005.
