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John Lewis Gaddis Papers on George F. Kennan
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
John Lewis Gaddis (1941- ) is a diplomatic historian noted for his analysis of the Cold War. He has spent his career at Ohio University and Yale University, and is the authorized biographer of noted diplomat and historian George F. Kennan.
Gaddis was educated at the University of Texas, earning his B.A. in 1963, M.A. in 1965, and Ph.D. in 1968. He taught briefly as an assistant professor at Indiana University Southeast before obtaining a position at Ohio University, Athens. At Ohio University, Gaddis was assistant professor of history (1969-1971), associate professor (1971-1976), professor (1976-1983), and distinguished professor of history (1983-1997). He also served as the director of their Contemporary History Institute from 1987 to 1993. Since 1997, Gaddis has been the Robert A. Lovett Professor of History at Yale University where he teaches courses in Cold War history, international studies, and biography. He has also taught as a visiting professor at the Naval War College, University Helsinki, Princeton University, and Oxford University.
Gaddis's scholarship focuses on the Cold War. Drawn to the relationship between history and current events, he began his study during the Cold War and has continued to reassess his positions as new documents are released. His publications include The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947 (1972), Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security (1982), The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War (1987), We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (1997), The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past (2002), Surprise, Security, and the American Experience (2004), and The Cold War: A New History (2006). His most recent project is an authorized biography of George F. Kennan.
The John Lewis Gaddis Papers on George F. Kennan contain interviews conducted by Gaddis for his authorized biography of noted diplomat and historian George F. Kennan and include transcripts and recordings of the interviews. Gaddis interviewed Kennan, his family, and his colleagues in the United States government and in academia about the entire span of Kennan's life and career.
The following sources were consulted during the preparation of the biographical note: "Documenting the Cold War: John Lewis Gaddis," by Meredith Hindley. Humanities, vol 27, no 1, January/February 2006. "John Lewis Gaddis," Marquis Who's Who Online. www.marquiswhoswho.com Accessed March 17, 2009. "John Lewis Gaddis," Yale University History Department webpage. www.yale.edu/history Accessed March 17, 2009.
On deposit by John Lewis Gaddis. Materials were received periodically from 1982-2012. A large cache of interview transcripts and recordings were deposited at the Mudd Library in January 2012 [ML.2012.002].
Series 2: Interview Recordings (Box 2) contains 40 audio cassette tapes and 65 CDs. Access to this material follows the Mudd Manuscript Library policy for preservation and access to audiovisual materials.
This collection was first processed by Adriane Hanson in March 2009. Finding aid written by Adriane Hanson in March 2009 and updated by Maureen Callahan on April 16, 2013 to incorporate a January 2012 accession. Interview transcripts were interfiled alphabetically with Series 1, mp3 recordings were incorporated alphabetically in Series 2, and CDs were copied to web-based storage at this time.
No materials were separated from this collection during processing in 2009 or 2012.
People
Organization
Subject
- Communism -- Soviet Union
- Cold War
- Diplomatic and consular service, American -- Soviet Union
- International relations
Place
- Publisher
- Public Policy Papers
- Finding Aid Author
- Adriane Hanson
- Finding Aid Date
- 2009
- Sponsor
- These papers were processed with the generous support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).
- Access Restrictions
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Access to interviews for living individuals requires the permission of the interviewee. All other interviews are open for research use. Restricted interviews are noted in the contents listing below.
- Use Restrictions
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Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. For quotations that are fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. For those few instances beyond fair use, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold the copyright and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from the Mudd Library to move forward with their use.
Collection Inventory
The Interview Transcripts series is composed of transcripts of interviews conducted by Gaddis in preparation for his authorized biography of George F. Kennan. Gaddis interviewed Kennan, his family, and his colleagues in the United States government and in academia. The interview topics span Kennan's entire life and include his family, education, years in the Foreign Service, and his career at the Institute for Advanced Study. Subjects of the interviews include Kennan's opinions on various world events and political issues, his experiences at the embassies where he served, notably in the Soviet Union, and with the Policy Planning Staff, his contributions to government policies and to scholarship, his opinions of various individuals, and general impressions about Kennan.
Arranged alphabetically by interviewee.
Physical Description2 boxes
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The Interview Recordings series contains recordings of interviews conducted by Gaddis in preparation for his authorized biography of George F. Kennan. The series includes recordings for all the interviews in Series 1 except for the interviews with Dean Rusk, Martha Mautner, Arthur M. Schlesinger, and Dorothy Fosdick. The recordings are on audio cassette tapes and each tape has been copied onto CD.
Arranged alphabetically by interviewee.
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(When attempting to copy the tape in February 2010, Princeton found it to be blank.)
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(When attempting to copy the tape in February 2010, Princeton found it to be inaudible and damaged.)
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