Download or read book George Kennan and the Dilemmas of US Foreign Policy written by David Mayers and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1990-04-12 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of a select group of American foreign service officers to receive specialized training on the Soviet Union in the late 1920s and early 1930s, George Frost Kennan eventually became the American government's chief expert on Soviet affairs during the height of the Cold War. Drawing upon a wealth of original research, David Mayers' fascinating life of George Kennan examines his high-level participation in foreign policy-making and interprets his political and philosophical development within a historical framework. Mayers presents an engaging and lucid account of Kennan's training; his rise to prominence during the late 1940s and his policy failures; and his later roles as critic of America's external policy, advocate of détente with the Soviet Union, and proponent of nuclear arms limitation. Mayers also explores Kennan's complicated relationships with such important political figures and analysts as Dean Acheson, John Foster Dulles, and Walter Lippmann.

Download or read book Modernization from the Other Shore written by David C. Engerman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-15 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the late nineteenth century to the eve of World War II, America's experts on Russia watched as Russia and the Soviet Union embarked on a course of rapid industrialization. Captivated by the idea of modernization, diplomats, journalists, and scholars across the political spectrum rationalized the enormous human cost of this path to progress. In a fascinating examination of this crucial era, David Engerman underscores the key role economic development played in America's understanding of Russia and explores its profound effects on U.S. policy. American intellectuals from George Kennan to Samuel Harper to Calvin Hoover understood Russian events in terms of national character. Many of them used stereotypes of Russian passivity, backwardness, and fatalism to explain the need for--and the costs of--Soviet economic development. These costs included devastating famines that left millions starving while the government still exported grain. This book is a stellar example of the new international history that seamlessly blends cultural and intellectual currents with policymaking and foreign relations. It offers valuable insights into the role of cultural differences and the shaping of economic policy for developing nations even today.

Download or read book George Kennan and the American Russian Relationship 1865 1924 written by Frederick F. Travis and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Kennan's career as a specialist on Russian affairs began in 1865, with his first journey to the Russian empire. A twenty-year-old telegraphic engineer at the time, he was a member of the Russian-American Telegraph Expedition, a now virtually unknown but nevertheless remarkable nineteenth-century adventure story. That bold undertaking would have established telegraph service between the United States and Russia by submarine cable across the Bering Strait, an event unfortunately upstaged by the successful laying of the Atlantic Cable. Its directors subsequently abandoned the project. But for Kennan the impact of the endeavor proved both formative and lasting; his work in northeastern Siberia as a member of the expedition had so piqued his interest in Russia that over half a century later it still was not slaked. By the time of his death in 1924, his various investigations of Russian subjects had resulted in numerous publications and lectures that had established his reputation as the leading American expert on Russia of his era. The major concern of Frederick F. Travis's book is the role of George Kennan in shaping American-Russian relations in the important half century before the Russian Revolution and its immediate aftermath. This study first establishes that Kennan began his career as an ardent Russophile, then carefully traces his shift to hostility following his investigation of the Siberian exile system in 1885-86, and explains in some detail his subsequent influence on public opinion. Kennan's later work revealed a Russia of almost unrelieved political and economic distress in the tsarist empire, and of a noble, almost hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned opposition, contributing significantly to the unpreparedness with which America faced the Revolution of 1917. Kennan's analysis of the October Revolution and its immediate aftermath served only to harden American attitudes toward the presumed evils of Bolshevism. The picture of George Kennan that emerges from this study is the fullest to appear in any language, according him a standing in the history of American-Russian relations unequaled by any official participant.

Download or read book Transatlantic Radicalism written by Frank Jacob and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Atlantic Ocean not only connected North and South America with Europe through trade but also provided the means for an exchange of knowledge and ideas, including political radicalism. Socialists and anarchists would use this “radical ocean” to escape state prosecution in their home countries and establish radical milieus abroad. However, this was often a rather unorganized development and therefore the connections that existed were quite diverse. The movement of individuals led to the establishment of organizational ties and the import and exchange of political publications between Europe and the Americas. The main aim of this book is to show how the transatlantic networks of political radicalism evolved with regard to socialist and anarchist milieus and in particular to look at the actors within the relevant processes—topics that have so far been neglected in the major histories of transnational political radicalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Individual case studies are examined within a wider context to show how networks were actually created, how they functioned and their impact on the broader history of the radical Atlantic.

Download or read book Siberia and the Soviet Far East written by David Norman Collins and published by Oxford, England ; Santa Barbara, Calif. : Clio Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History written by Joseph L. Wieczynski and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Ambassadors and America s Soviet Policy written by David Mayers and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1995-04-06 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Kennan, Charles Bohlen, W. Averell Harriman, William Bullitt, Joseph E. Davies, Llewlleyn Thompson, Jack Matlock: these are important names in the history of American foreign policy. Together with a number of lesser-known officials, these diplomats played a vital role in shaping U.S. strategy and popular attitudes toward the Soviet Union throughout its 75-year history. In The Ambassadors and America's Soviet Policy, David Mayers presents the most comprehensive critical examination yet of U.S. diplomats in the Soviet Union. Mayers' vivid portrayal evokes the social and intellectual atmosphere of the American embassy in the midst of crucial episodes: the Bolshevik Revolution, the Great Purges, the Grand Alliance in World War II, the early Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the rise and decline of detente, and the heady days of perestroika and glasnost. He also offers rare portraits of the professional lives of the diplomats themselves: their adjustment to Soviet life, the quality of their analytical reporting, their contact with other diplomats in Moscow, and their influence on Washington. Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of American diplomacy in its most challenging area, this compelling book fills an important gap in the history of U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-Soviet relations. Readers interested in U.S. foreign policy, the cold war, and the policies and history of the former Soviet Union will find The Ambassadors and America's Soviet Policy an intriguing and informative work.

Download or read book Annual Report The Wilson Center written by Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book American Visions of Europe written by John Lamberton Harper and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-06-13 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a biographical study of three American statesmen, concentrating on the development of their distinct attitudes and political programs with respect to the problem of Europe in American foreign policy: 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 at the behest of European and American interests. The purpose of the book is to explain how and why they arrived at very different solutions to the problem of internecine conflict in Europe, and to show the continuing relevance of their ideas. Three learned and elegantly written portraits are set against the background of the dramatic events and foreign policy controversies of the twentieth century.

Download or read book The Catacazy Affair and the Uneasy Path of Russian American Relations written by Lee A. Farrow and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-09 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constantin Catacazy whipped up scandal in Washington after his appointment there as Russian Ambassador in 1869, ignoring diplomatic protocol and defying social mores. By 1871, President Grant and his Cabinet requested that he be recalled. But the timing of this request overlapped with the visit of the tsar's son to the USA - a celebrated diplomatic event symbolising the friendship and good will between the two nations. Consequently, Catacazy was allowed to travel with the tsar's son, but only as a persona non grata. This tense resolution led many to worry about the future of the Russian-American friendship. With a keen sense of the human interest, Lee A. Farrow demonstrates that this affair was one of the earliest significant complications in the relationship between Russia and the USA. Using a lively micro-historical approach and fresh materials such as the letters of Catacazy and of Secretary of State Hamilton Fish from archives in the USA, UK and Russia, Farrow explores 19th-century politics and diplomacy, and the pre-suffrage power of women in the political arena through an investigation of the Washington wives' reactions to the controversial figure of Olga Catacazy. The result is a cutting-edge analysis of this pivotal episode in modern history.

Download or read book Principled Diplomacy written by Cathal J. Nolan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1993-01-30 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new analysis of governing ideas in U.S. foreign policy shows how they arise, are sustained and challenged both domestically and internationally, and become part of the world order. Nolan assesses the problems of reconciling concerns for individual rights and liberal principles with national security interests in U.S. foreign policy over the course of the twentieth century. This interpretive survey redefines the key components in the make-up of U.S. diplomacy and provides good reading for students of American government, international relations and U.S. foreign policy, American and world history, defense, and human rights policy. This short history traces the notions that liberty is indivisible and that security depends ultimately on the establishment and success of liberal-democratic norms between and within states. It shows how U.S. policy vacillates between giving active or passive expression to these ideas, always relying on a basic assumption about the presumed pacific character of democracy. Utilizing a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, it looks at how these ideas became manifest in two major policy settings---those affecting the Soviet Union and the UN. Through these case studies, the book shows how these ideas become progressively embedded in U.S. policy; how they have been challenged by different interests and events; how they were disseminated among and accepted by allies (and even several former adversaries); and how, as a result, they now permeate the structures of major international organizations, and even underlie the emerging post-Cold War international system as a whole. The conclusion offers an interesting perspective for the future.

Download or read book The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations written by William Earl Weeks and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-08 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second volume of the updated edition describes the dynamics of United States foreign policy from 1865 to 1913.

Download or read book Kennan Institute written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The First Cold War written by Donald E. Davis and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2002-08-26 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The First Cold War, Donald E. Davis and Eugene P. Trani review the Wilson administration’s attitudes toward Russia before, during, and after the Bolshevik seizure of power. They argue that before the Russian Revolution, Woodrow Wilson had little understanding of Russia and made poor appointments that cost the United States Russian goodwill. Wilson later reversed those negative impressions by being the first to recognize Russia’s Provisional Government, resulting in positive U.S.–Russian relations until Lenin gained power in 1917. Wilson at first seemed unsure whether to recognize or repudiate Lenin and the Bolsheviks. His vacillation finally ended in a firm repudiation when he opted for a diplomatic quarantine having almost all of the ingredients of the later Cold War. Davis and Trani argue that Wilson deserves mild criticism for his early indecision and inability to form a coherent policy toward what would become the Soviet Union. But they believe Wilson rightly came to the conclusion that until the regime became more moderate, it was useless for America to engage it diplomatically. The authors see in Wilson’s approach the foundations for the “first Cold War”—meaning not simply a refusal to recognize the Soviet Union, but a strong belief that its influence was harmful and would spread if not contained or quarantined. Wilson’s Soviet policy in essence lasted until Roosevelt extended diplomatic recognition in the 1930s. But The First Cold War suggests that Wilson’s impact extended beyond Roosevelt to Truman, showing that the policies of Wilson and Truman closely resemble each other with the exception of an arms race. Wilson’s intellectual reputation lent credibility to U.S. Cold War policy from Truman to Reagan, and the reader can draw a direct connection from Wilson to the collapse of the USSR. Wilsonians were the first Cold War warriors, and in the era of President Woodrow Wilson, the first Cold War began.

Download or read book The Life and Times of Charles R Crane 1858 1939 written by Norman E. Saul and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2012-12-21 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Life and Times of Charles R. Crane, Norman E. Saul analyzes the contributions of Charles R. Crane, world traveler, businessman, diplomat, and philanthropist in the setting of his times. Crane acquired his appreciation for Russian culture and life through travel in the country, making a total of twenty-four trips to Russia. He developed friendships and professional relationships with many prominent Russians in political, cultural, and artistic spheres in addition to his connections to important figures in American history such as Woodrow Wilson. As the son of a Chicago industrialist with little formal education, Charles R. Crane enjoyed remarkable success serving as a financial backer and advisor to the Woodrow Wilson administration, founding member of the 1917 Root Commission to Russia, minister to China, and establishing a factory in Russia to manufacture air brakes for the Russian railroad. He devoted a considerable amount of his own time and resources to educating Americans about the Russian people. He sponsored visiting lecturers, subsidized publications, and commissioned works by Russian artists. Charles Crane was arguably the first true American globalist. His activities involved Russia, China, and the Middle East, but Saul emphasizes his travels in Russia and his role in the development and promotion of Russian studies in America. Crane represented the United States becoming a world power in business and diplomacy, and fostered an American appreciation and knowledge of Russian, Asian, and Middle Eastern societies. By studying this unusual man, Saul explores the world in which he lived and traveled. The relationship between America and Russia has always been a complex and fascinating one, and Saul shines light on a pivotal period in that relationship.

Download or read book Catalog of Copyright Entries Third Series written by Library of Congress. Copyright Office and published by Copyright Office, Library of Congress. This book was released on 1976 with total page 1594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Revolutionary Philanthropy written by Stuart Finkel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-07-15 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In late nineteenth-century Russia, a series of organizations emerged from the nascent radical liberationist movement for the purposes of providing aid to political prisoners and exiles. Those leading these endeavors framed them as a philanthropic exercise that was paradoxically always also political, provocatively appropriating the name and humanitarian mission of the Red Cross for their illicit attempts to assist the enemies of the Tsarist state. These efforts provided a unifying thread to the fractious and fragmented revolutionary movement over years and even decades. The unjustly persecuted political prisoner or exile came to serve as a powerful synecdoche for the tyranny of the autocratic state, while assisting these "suffering martyrs" came to be legible as an indisputably noble act across political and even national boundaries. Revolutionary Philanthropy--the first book in any language to provide a comprehensive portrait of the origins of these organizations--posits that the groupings that undertook aid to political prisoners and exiles emerged through gradually accrued shared practices within a series of constantly evolving, overlapping domestic and international personal and political networks. In bringing together two seemingly incompatible modes of social action--radical politics and philanthropy--these "red cross" activities came to form a vital connective tissue across party and ideological lines. Moreover, they connected the still small and isolated groupings of committed revolutionaries to a significantly wider circle of sympathizers, both at home and abroad. Within Russia, this linked radicals to a significantly broader circle of liberals and politically uncommitted supporters, while revolutionary émigrés presented the Western public with a captivating narrative of heroic martyrs unjustly suffering for the cause. While the strain of conflicting imperatives threatened on multiple occasions to unravel the entire affair, in the end this very tension proved instrumental in making them durable. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources inmultiplelanguages,someof which have not been consulted before