John Lewis Gaddis

Last updated
John Lewis Gaddis
John Lewis Gaddis speaks to U.S. Naval War College (NWC) faculty during the Teaching Grand Strategy workshop at the NWC 120816-N-LE393-023 (7796812032) (cropped).jpg
Gaddis speaking to U.S. Naval War College (NWC) faculty during the Teaching Grand Strategy workshop at the NWC
Born (1941-04-02) April 2, 1941 (age 82)
Education University of Texas, Austin (BA, MA, PhD)
Occupation(s)Military historian, political scientist, writer
Era Contemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
School Neorealism
Institutions Ohio University
Yale University
Naval War College
University of Oxford
Princeton University
Doctoral advisor Robert A. Divine
Main interests
Foreign relations of the United States

John Lewis Gaddis (born April 2, 1941) is an American military historian, political scientist, and writer. He is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University. [1] He is best known for his work on the Cold War and grand strategy, [1] and he has been hailed as the "Dean of Cold War Historians" by The New York Times . [2] Gaddis is also the official biographer of the seminal 20th-century American statesman George F. Kennan. [3] George F. Kennan: An American Life (2011), his biography of Kennan, won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. [4]

Contents

Biography

Gaddis was born in Cotulla, Texas, the son of Harry Passmore Gaddis and his wife Isabel Florence (Maltsberger) Gaddis. [5] [6] He attended the University of Texas at Austin, receiving his BA in 1963, MA in 1965, and PhD in 1968, [7] [8] the latter under the direction of Robert Divine. Gaddis then taught briefly at Indiana University Southeast, before joining Ohio University in 1969. [7] At Ohio, he founded and directed the Contemporary History Institute, [9] and was named a distinguished professor in 1983. [7]

In the 1975–77 academic years, Gaddis was a visiting professor of Strategy at the Naval War College. In the 1992–93 academic year, he was the Harmsworth Visiting professor of American History at Oxford. [10] He has also held visiting positions at Princeton University and the University of Helsinki. He served as president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations in 1992. [11]

In 1997, he moved to Yale University to become the Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History. In the 2000–01 academic year, Gaddis was the George Eastman Professor at Oxford, the second scholar (after Robin Winks) to have the honor of being both Eastman and Harmsworth professor. [12] In 2005, he received the National Humanities Medal. [13] He sits on the advisory committee of the Wilson Center's Cold War International History Project, [14] which he helped establish in 1991. [13] Gaddis is also known for his close relationship with the late George Kennan and his wife, whom Gaddis described as "my companions". [15]

Scholarship

Gaddis is probably the best known historian writing in English about the Cold War. [16] Perhaps his most famous work is the highly influential Strategies of Containment (1982; rev. 2005), [17] which analyzes in detail the theory and practice of containment that was employed against the Soviet Union by Cold War American presidents, but his 1983 distillation of post-revisionist scholarship similarly became a major channel for guiding subsequent Cold War research. [18]

We Now Know (1997) presented an analysis of the Cold War through to the Cuban Missile Crisis that incorporated new archival evidence from the Soviet bloc. [19] Fellow historian Melvyn Leffler named it as "likely to set the parameters for a whole new generation of scholarship". [20] It was also praised as "the first coherent and sustained attempt to write the Cold War's history since it ended." [21] Nonetheless, Leffler observed that the most distinctive feature of We Now Know is the extent to which Gaddis "abandons post-revisionism and returns to a more traditional interpretation of the Cold War." [22]

The Cold War (2005), praised by John Ikenberry as a "beautifully written panoramic view of the Cold War, full of illuminations and shrewd judgments," [23] was described as an examination of the history and effects of the Cold War in a more removed context than had been previously possible, [24] and won Gaddis the 2006 Harry S. Truman Book Prize. [25] Critics were less impressed, with Tony Judt summarising the book as "a history of America's cold war: as seen from America, as experienced in America, and told in a way most agreeable to many American readers," [26] and David S. Painter writing that it was a "carefully crafted defense of US policy and policymakers" that was "not comprehensive." [16]

His 2011 biography of George Kennan garnered multiple prizes, including a Pulitzer. [4]

John Nagl, in the Wall Street Journal, wrote of Gaddis's 2018 book On Grand Strategy as "a book that should be read by every American leader or would-be leader". [27]

Gaddis is known for arguing that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's personality and role in history constituted one of the most important causes of the Cold War. Within the field of U.S. diplomatic history, he was originally most associated with the concept of post-revisionism, the idea of moving past the revisionist and orthodox interpretations of the origins of the Cold War to embrace what were (in the 1970s) interpretations based upon the then-growing availability of government documents from the United States, Great Britain and other western government archives.[ citation needed ] Due to his growing focus on Stalin and leanings toward US nationalism, Gaddis is now widely seen as more orthodox than post-revisionist. [28] [29] The revisionist Bruce Cumings had a high-profile debate with Gaddis in the 1990s, where Cumings criticized Gaddis as moralistic and lacking in objectivity. [30]

Political positions

Gaddis is close to President George W. Bush, making suggestions to his speech writers, [31] and has been described as an "overt admirer" of the 43rd President. [32] After leaving office, Bush took up painting as a hobby at Gaddis's recommendation. [33]

During the US invasion of Iraq, Gaddis argued: "The world now must be made safe for democracy, and this is no longer just an idealistic issue; it's an issue of our own safety." [34] During the United States occupation of Iraq, Gaddis asserted that Bush had established America "as a more powerful and purposeful actor within the international system than it had been on September 11, 2001." Historian James Chace argues that Gaddis supports an "informal imperial policy abroad." [35] Gaddis believes that preventive war is a constructive part of American tradition, and that there is no meaningful difference between preventive and pre-emptive war. [36]

About the Trump presidency he has said, "We may have been overdue for some reconsideration of the whole political system. There are times when the vision is not going to come from within the system and the vision is going to come from outside the system. And maybe this is one of those times." [37]

Quotes

Awards and distinctions

U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush standing with 2005 National Humanities Medal recipient John Lewis Gaddis on November 10, 2005, in the Oval Office at the White House. Jl gaddis.jpg
U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush standing with 2005 National Humanities Medal recipient John Lewis Gaddis on November 10, 2005, in the Oval Office at the White House.

Selected publications

Books

External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Q&A interview with Gaddis on On Grand Strategy, May 27, 2018, C-SPAN
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg After Words interview with Gaddis on George F. Kennan: An American Life, March 3, 2012, C-SPAN
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Interview with Gaddis on George F. Kennan, September 22, 2012, C-SPAN
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Presentation by Gaddis on George F. Kennan, September 22, 2012, C-SPAN
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Presentation by Gaddis on The Cold War: A New History, February 1, 2006, C-SPAN
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Booknotes interview with Gaddis on Surprise, Security, and the American Experience, May 16, 2004, C-SPAN
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Presentation by Gaddis on We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, April 3, 1997, C-SPAN

Articles and chapters

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dean Acheson</span> American politician and lawyer (1893–1971)

Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truman's main foreign policy advisor from 1945 to 1947, especially regarding the Cold War. Acheson helped design the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He was in private law practice from July 1947 to December 1948. After 1949 Acheson came under partisan political attack from Republicans led by Senator Joseph McCarthy over Truman's policy toward the People's Republic of China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Truman Doctrine</span> Cold War-era American foreign policy aimed at containing the expansion of communism

The Truman Doctrine is an American foreign policy that pledges American "support for democracies against authoritarian threats." The doctrine originated with the primary goal of countering the growth of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. It was announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947, and further developed on July 4, 1948, when he pledged to oppose the communist rebellions in Greece and Soviet demands from Turkey. More generally, the Truman Doctrine implied American support for other nations threatened by Moscow. It led to the formation of NATO in 1949. Historians often use Truman's speech to Congress on March 12, 1947 to date the start of the Cold War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carter Doctrine</span> 1980 US policy

The Carter Doctrine was a policy proclaimed by President of the United States Jimmy Carter in his State of the Union Address on January 23, 1980, which stated that the United States would use military force, if necessary, to defend its national interests in the Persian Gulf. It was a response to the Soviet Union's intervention in Afghanistan in 1979, and it was intended to deter the Soviet Union, the United States' Cold War adversary, from seeking hegemony in the Persian Gulf region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George F. Kennan</span> American diplomat, political scientist, and historian (1904–2005)

George Frost Kennan was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histories of the relations between the USSR and the United States. He was also one of the group of foreign policy elders known as "The Wise Men".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Origins of the Cold War</span>

The Cold War originated in the breakdown of relations between the two main victors in World War II: United States and the Soviet Union, and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, in the years 1945–1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Containment</span> American Cold War foreign policy against the spread of communism

Containment was a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II. The name was loosely related to the term cordon sanitaire, which was containment of the Soviet Union in the interwar period.

United States Objectives and Programs for National Security, better known as NSC 68, was a 66-page top secret National Security Council (NSC) policy paper drafted by the Department of State and Department of Defense and presented to President Harry S. Truman on 7 April 1950. It was one of the most important American policy statements of the Cold War. In the words of scholar Ernest R. May, NSC 68 "provided the blueprint for the militarization of the Cold War from 1950 to the collapse of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s." NSC 68 and its subsequent amplifications advocated a large expansion in the military budget of the United States, the development of a hydrogen bomb, and increased military aid to allies of the United States. It made the rollback of global Communist expansion a high priority. NSC 68 rejected the alternative policies of friendly détente and containment of the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X Article</span> 1947 anti-communist article by American diplomat George F. Kennan

The "X Article" is an article, formally titled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct", written by George F. Kennan and published under the pseudonym "X" in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. It widely introduced the term "containment" and advocated for its strategic use against the Soviet Union. It expanded on ideas expressed by Kennan in a confidential February 1946 telegram, formally identified by Kennan's State Department number, "511", but informally dubbed the "long telegram" for its size.

John Adalbert Lukacs was a Hungarian-born American historian and author of more than thirty books. Lukacs described himself as a reactionary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Look (policy)</span> US national security policy

The New Look was the name given to the national security policy of the United States during the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It reflected Eisenhower's concern for balancing the Cold War military commitments of the United States with the nation's financial resources. The policy emphasised reliance on strategic nuclear weapons as well as a reorganisation of conventional forces in an effort to deter potential threats, both conventional and nuclear, from the Eastern Bloc of nations headed by the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bibliography of the Cold War</span>

This is an English language bibliography of scholarly books and articles on the Cold War. Because of the extent of the Cold War, the conflict is well documented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Odd Arne Westad</span> Norwegian historian (born 1960)

Odd Arne Westad FBA is a Norwegian historian specializing in the Cold War and contemporary East Asian history. He is the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University, where he teaches in the Yale History Department and in the Jackson School of Global Affairs. Previously, Westad held the S.T. Lee Chair of US-Asia Relations at Harvard University, teaching in the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Westad has also taught at the London School of Economics, where he served as director of LSE IDEAS. In the spring semester 2019 Westad was Boeing Company Chair in International Relations at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University.

Gabriel Morris Kolko was an American historian. His research interests included American capitalism and political history, the Progressive Era, and U.S. foreign policy in the 20th century. One of the best-known revisionist historians to write about the Cold War, he was also credited as "an incisive critic of the Progressive Era and its relationship to the American empire." U.S. historian Paul Buhle summarized Kolko's career when he described him as "a major theorist of what came to be called Corporate Liberalism...[and] a very major historian of the Vietnam War and its assorted war crimes."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historiography of the Cold War</span> Historiography of the Cold War

As soon as the term "Cold War" was popularized to refer to postwar tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, interpreting the course and origins of the conflict became a source of heated controversy among historians, political scientists and journalists. In particular, historians have sharply disagreed as to who was responsible for the breakdown of Soviet Union–United States relations after the World War II and whether the conflict between the two superpowers was inevitable, or could have been avoided. Historians have also disagreed on what exactly the Cold War was, what the sources of the conflict were and how to disentangle patterns of action and reaction between the two sides. While the explanations of the origins of the conflict in academic discussions are complex and diverse, several general schools of thought on the subject can be identified. Historians commonly speak of three differing approaches to the study of the Cold War: "orthodox" accounts, "revisionism" and "post-revisionism". However, much of the historiography on the Cold War weaves together two or even all three of these broad categories and more recent scholars have tended to address issues that transcend the concerns of all three schools.

Robert J. McMahon is an American historian of the foreign relations of the United States and a scholar of the Cold War. He currently holds the chair of Ralph D. Mershon Distinguished Professor at Ohio State University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melvyn P. Leffler</span> American historian and educator (born 1945)

Melvyn Paul Leffler is an American historian and educator, currently Edward Stettinius Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the Bancroft Prize for his book A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration and the Cold War, and the American Historical Association’s George Louis Beer Prize for his book For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War.

<i>George F. Kennan: An American Life</i> Biography of George F. Kennan written by John Lewis Gaddis

George F. Kennan: An American Life is a nonfiction book about U.S. diplomat George F. Kennan by John Lewis Gaddis that won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David S. Painter</span> Associate professor of international history

David S. Painter is an associate professor of international history at Georgetown University. He is a leading scholar of the Cold War and United States foreign policy during the 20th century, with particular emphasis on their relation to oil.

William Beatty Pickett is an American historian and professor emeritus at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. He is known as an authority on President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Indiana Sen. Homer E. Capehart, and is the author of several well-regarded books on U.S. history including Dwight David Eisenhower and American Power and Eisenhower Decides To Run: Presidential Politics and Cold War Strategy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cold War (1947–1948)</span> Period within the Cold War

The Cold War from 1947 to 1948 is the period within the Cold War from the Truman Doctrine in 1947 to the incapacitation of the Allied Control Council in 1948. The Cold War emerged in Europe a few years after the successful US–USSR–UK coalition won World War II in Europe, and extended to 1989–1991. It took place worldwide, but it had a partially different timing outside Europe. Some conflicts between the West and the USSR appeared earlier. In 1945–1946 the US and UK strongly protested Soviet political takeover efforts in Eastern Europe and Iran, while the hunt for Soviet spies made the tensions more visible. However, historians emphasize the decisive break between the US–UK and the USSR came in 1947–1948 over such issues as the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and the breakdown of cooperation in governing occupied Germany by the Allied Control Council. In 1947, Bernard Baruch, the multimillionaire financier and adviser to presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Harry S. Truman, coined the term "Cold War" to describe the increasingly chilly relations between three World War II Allies: the United States and British Empire together with the Soviet Union.

References

  1. 1 2 "Yale Department of History » John Gaddis". history.yale.edu . Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  2. Priscilla Johnson McMillan (25 May 1997). "Cold Warmonger". The New York Times . Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  3. Douglas Brinkley (17 February 2004). "Celebrating a Policy Seer And His Cold War Insight". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
    Profile of Kennan on his 100th birthday, includes several paragraphs detailing his relationship with Gaddis.
  4. 1 2 3 "The 2012 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Biography or Autobiography". pulitzer.org . Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  5. "Gaddis, John Lewis 1941- | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2024-03-05.
  6. Alden Branch, Mark. "Days of Duck and Cover". Yale Alumni Magazine (March 2000). Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 "Historians will debate Cold War". The Lewiston Daily Sun . 23 January 1989. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  8. "Princeton University Library Finding Aids: 'John Lewis Gaddis Papers on George F. Kennan, 1982–1989', Collection Creator Biography". findingaids.princeton.edu . Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  9. "Honorary Alumni: John Lewis Gaddis". Ohio University Today (Fall 1990): 6. 1990. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  10. 1 2 "Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History". rai.ox.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  11. 1 2 "Past Presidents". shafr.org. Archived from the original on 10 August 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  12. "Winks honored by Oxford, National Parks". Yale Bulletin & Calendar. 27 (31). 1999. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  13. 1 2 3 "Awards & Honors: 2005 National Humanities Medalist John Lewis Gaddis". neh.gov . Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  14. "CWIHP Advisory Committee". wilsoncenter.org. 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  15. Costigliola 2011.
  16. 1 2 Painter 2006 , p. 527.
  17. Leffler 1999 , p. 503, which describes Strategies of Containment as "one of the most influential books ever written on post-World War II international relations."
  18. Hogan 1987 , p. 494.
  19. CIRIS. "Containment - Center for International Relations and International Security". www.ciris.info. Retrieved 2023-11-25.
  20. Leffler 1999 , p. 502.
  21. Ascherson 1997.
  22. Leffler 1999 , p. [ page needed ]
  23. Ikenberry 2006.
  24. Michael C. Boyer (22 January 2006). "A world divided: A leading historian evaluates the causes and ultimate collapse of the Cold War". Boston Globe . Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  25. 1 2 "John Lewis Gaddis Wins 2006 Harry S. Truman Book Award". trumanlibrary.org. 16 April 2006. Archived from the original on July 26, 2006. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  26. Judt 2006.
  27. Nagl, John (16 April 2018). "'On Grand Strategy' Review: The War Against Decline and Fall". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  28. America in the World: The Historiography of US Foreign Relations Since 1941, edited by Michael J. Hogan (Cambridge University Press, 2013), p.8-10
  29. "The Origins of the Cold War" Seth Center, University of Virginia
  30. America in the World: The Historiography of US Foreign Relations Since 1941, edited by Michael J. Hogan (Cambridge University Press, 2013), p.10-14
  31. Gaddis 2008.
    Hartung 2003 criticizes Gaddis for holding a "relatively positive assessment" of post-9/11 Bush foreign policy.
  32. Jonathan Haslam (17 April 2012). "George F Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis – review". The Guardian. theguardian.com . Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  33. Baker, Dorie (April 26, 2013). "Yale professor's advice to former U.S. president: Paint". YaleNews. Yale University. Archived from the original on May 4, 2013. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  34. Rauchway, Eric (15 March 2012). "Alterman on Gaddis on Kennan. - The Edge of the American West". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  35. Chace, James (2004-10-07). "Empire, Anyone?". New York Review of Books. ISSN   0028-7504 . Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  36. "Gaddis: Bush Pre-emption Doctrine The Most Dramatic Policy Shift Since Cold War". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  37. Baker, Peter (2019-12-18). "A President Impeached, and a Nation Convulsed". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-12-19.
  38. Gaddis, John Lewis (2005). The Cold War: A New History. New York: Penguin Press. ISBN   1-59420-062-9. OCLC   61303540.
  39. 1 2 Gaddis, John Lewis (2018). On Grand Strategy. New York. ISBN   978-1-59420-351-0. OCLC   993691628.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  40. 1 2 Gaddis, John Lewis (2002). The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past. Oxford. ISBN   978-1-4294-3109-5. OCLC   77846078.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  41. "New-York Historical Society Awards Its Annual American History Book Prize to John Lewis Gaddis for George F. Kennan: An American Life". nyhistory.org. 16 February 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  42. "All Past National Book Critics Circle Award Winners and Finalists". bookcritics.org. Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  43. "DeVane Medalists, 1966–Present". pbk.yalecollege.yale.edu. 8 November 2005. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  44. "Eastman Professors at the University of Oxford". americanrhodes.org. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  45. 1 2 "Fulbright Alumni » Notable Fulbrighters". eca.state.gov . Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  46. "Gaddis Named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences". ohio.edu. May 1995. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  47. "Alphabetical Index of Active AAAS Members as of 5 November 2013" (PDF). amacad.org . Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  48. "Notable Achievements of Members". Perspectives . 33 (6). 1995. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  49. "Ohio University Historian Selected as Woodrow Wilson Fellow". ohio.edu. April 1995. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  50. "The Whitney H. Shepardson Fellowship". cfr.org. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  51. "John Lewis Gaddis: 1986 Fellow, U.S. History". gf.org. Archived from the original on 4 April 2013. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  52. "Distinguished Professors (Current–1959)". ohio.edu . Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  53. "The Bancroft Prizes: Previous Awards". library.columbia.edu. Archived from the original on 10 April 2013. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  54. Gaddis 1974 , p. 14, for "Best First Work of History".
  55. "Author and historian John Lewis Gaddis to give lecture April 21". middlebury.edu. 11 April 2005. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  56. Reviewed at Nagl, John (2018). "The War Against Decline and Fall," Wall Street Journal, April 18, p. A6. Retrieved 17 April 2018.

Bibliography