American Visions of Europe: Franklin D. Roosevelt, George F. Kennan, and Dean G. Acheson - Rilegato

Harper, John Lamberton

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0521454832 ISBN 13: 9780521454834

Casa editrice: Cambridge University Press, 1994

Riassunto

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.

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Recensione:

"Harper's writing is clear, concise and jargon free, and his research is solidly based on both primary and secondary sources. This well-written work should be required reading for anyone interested in the personalities and policies of the early, formative years of the cold war." Library Journal

"Harper creatively melds biography with cultural and diplomatic history in this triptych of portraits of important architects of US policy towards Europe ...An absorbing study of the linkages between personal and diplomatic perspectives--illuminating as historical background in this period of European integration and diminished American power." Kirkus Reviews

"John Harper has written a finely crafted meditation on Europe's role in the imagination of twentieth-century American statesmen. At a time when we and the Europeans again face uncharted dilemmas, Harper's account challenges, instructs and sometimes disquiets." Charles S. Maier, Harvard University

"John Harper has done something that no one else has done to date. Not only that, he has done it exceedingly well. He has enabled us to see our European interest in a perspective we did not have before. A book of great relevance for the present juncture." Robert Tucker, Johns Hopkins University

"Through the intertwined lives of three American statesmen, John Harper has illuminated America's ambivalent attachment to Europe with rare eloquence and insight." Ronald Steel, University of Southern California

"...urbane, thoughtful ruminations on America's vexed relationship with the continent that is its cultural and institutional home." The Washington Times

"In a first-rate treatment of the ideas that shaped American diplomatic culture at midcentury, Harper shows how cultural milieu, education, and early career contacts with Europeans shaped the European vision of each protagonist and, in turn, influenced American Cold War diplomacy for a generation." Choice

"...wonderfully erudite work....a brilliant exposition of the basically unchanging problems of U.S. European policy, from Wilson through Truman, by means of the study of the approaches of three very major practitioners...." Dan Simpson, Foreign Service Journal

"Taken together, as an investigation of a theme, the triptych works surprisingly well....Taken singly, as biographies in miniature, they are even more impressive....They are explored throughout with exceptional sympathy and discrimination." Alex Danchev, Times Higher Education Supplement

Descrizione del libro:

These elegantly written portraits of three American statesmen are set against the background of the dramatic events and foreign policy controversies of the twentieth century. The purpose of the book is to explain how and why they arrived at very different solutions to the problems of Europe, and to show the continuing relevance of their ideas.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Cambridge University Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0521454832
• ISBN 13: 9780521454834
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 392