View source for John Lewis Gaddis

{{Short description|American historian of the Cold War (born 1941)}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region = Western philosophy
|era = Contemporary philosophy
|name = John Lewis Gaddis
|image = 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
|image_size = 
|caption = Gaddis speaking to U.S. Naval War College (NWC) faculty during the Teaching Grand Strategy workshop at the NWC
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1941|4|2}}
|birth_place = Cotulla, Texas, U.S.
| occupation = Military historian, political scientist, writer
|death_date = 
|death_place = 
|school_tradition = Neorealism
|main_interests = Foreign relations of the United States
|institutions = Ohio University<br />[[Yale University]]<br />Naval War College<br />University of Oxford<br />[[Princeton University]]
|doctoral_advisor = Robert A. Divine
|doctoral_students = <!-- notable only -->
|education=University of Texas, Austin (BA, MA, PhD)}}
'''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]]. and he has been hailed as the "Dean of Cold War Historians" by ''[[The New York Times]]''.Profile of Kennan on his 100th birthday, includes several paragraphs detailing his relationship with Gaddis.</ref> ''George F. Kennan: An American Life'' (2011), his biography of Kennan, won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

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== Biography ==
Gaddis was born in Cotulla, Texas, the son of Harry Passmore Gaddis and his wife Isabel Florence (Maltsberger) Gaddis. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, receiving his BA in 1963, MA in 1965, and PhD in 1968, At Ohio, he founded and directed the Contemporary History Institute,

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. 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.

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. In 2005, he received the National Humanities Medal. Gaddis is also known for his close relationship with the late [[George F. Kennan|George Kennan]] and his wife, whom Gaddis described as "my companions".

== Scholarship ==
Gaddis is probably the best known historian writing in English about the Cold War. Perhaps his most famous work is the highly influential ''Strategies of Containment'' (1982; rev. 2005), 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.

''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. Fellow historian Melvyn Leffler named it as "likely to set the parameters for a whole new generation of scholarship". It was also praised as "the first coherent and sustained attempt to write the Cold War's history since it ended." 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."

''The Cold War'' (2005), praised by John Ikenberry as a "beautifully written panoramic view of the Cold War, full of illuminations and shrewd judgments,"

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

[[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".

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. Due to his growing focus on Stalin and leanings toward US nationalism, Gaddis is now widely seen as more orthodox than post-revisionist. The revisionist Bruce Cumings had a high-profile debate with Gaddis in the 1990s, where Cumings criticized Gaddis as moralistic and lacking in objectivity.

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

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." 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." 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.

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."

== Quotes ==
* "Stalin's postwar goals were security for himself, his regime, his country, and his ideology, in precisely that order."
* "Assuming stability is one of the ways ruins get made. Resilience accommodates the unexpected."
* "Learning about the past liberates the learner from oppressions earlier constructions of the past have imposed upon them."
* "[A]lthough the past is never completely knowable, it is more knowable than the future."
* "Common sense, in this sense, is like oxygen: the higher you go, the thinner it gets."

== Awards and distinctions ==
[[File:Jl gaddis.jpg|thumb|320px|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.]]
* 2012 – Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
* 2012 – American History Book Prize
* 2011 – National Book Critics Circle Award, Biography
* 2006 – Harry S. Truman Book Award
* 2005 – National Humanities Medal
* 2003 – Yale Phi Beta Kappa DeVane Medalist for undergraduate teaching
* 2000 – Eastman Professor at the University of Oxford
* 1996 – Fulbright Scholar to Poland
* 1995 – Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
* 1995 – Wilson Center Fellowship
* 1993 – [[Council on Foreign Relations|Whitney H. Shepardson Fellowship]]
* 1992 – Harmsworth Professor of American History at the University of Oxford
* 1992 – Presidency of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
* 1986 – Guggenheim Fellowship
* 1983 – Distinguished Professor of Ohio University
* 1980 – Fulbright Scholar to Finland
* 1973 – Bancroft Prize
* 1973 – National Historical Society Prize
* 1973 – Stuart L. Bernath Prize

== Selected publications ==

=== Books ===
{{Library resources box|by=yes|about=no}}
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?445264-1/qa-john-lewis-gaddis ''Q&A'' interview with Gaddis on ''On Grand Strategy'', May 27, 2018], C-SPAN| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?303640-1/after-words-john-lewis-gaddis ''After Words'' interview with Gaddis on ''George F. Kennan: An American Life'', March 3, 2012], C-SPAN| video3 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?308235-10/george-f-kennan-american-life Interview with Gaddis on ''George F. Kennan'', September 22, 2012], C-SPAN| video4 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?308235-9/george-f-kennan-american-life Presentation by Gaddis on ''George F. Kennan'', September 22, 2012], C-SPAN| video5 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?191060-1/the-cold-war-history Presentation by Gaddis on ''The Cold War: A New History'', February 1, 2006], C-SPAN| video6 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?181826-1/surprise-security-american-experience- ''Booknotes'' interview with Gaddis on ''Surprise, Security, and the American Experience'', May 16, 2004], C-SPAN| video7 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?80118-1/we-know-rethinking-cold-war-history Presentation by Gaddis on ''We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History'', April 3, 1997], C-SPAN}}
* {{Cite book|title=On Grand Strategy|publisher=The Penguin Press|year=2018|isbn=978-1-594-20351-0|location=New York, New York}}
* {{Cite book|title=George F. Kennan: An American Life|location=New York, NY|publisher=The Penguin Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-594-20312-1|title-link=George F. Kennan: An American Life}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Cold War: A New History|location=New York, NY|publisher=The Penguin Press|year=2005|isbn=978-1-594-20062-5}} <small>US edition</small><br />{{Cite book|title=The Cold War|location=London|publisher=Allen Lane|year=2005|isbn=978-0-713-99912-9}} <small>UK edition</small>
* {{Cite book|title=Surprise, Security, and the American Experience|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-674-01174-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/surprisesecurity0000gadd}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past|location=New York, NY|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-195-06652-4}}
* {{Cite book|title=''(Co-editor with Philip H. Gordon, Ernest R. May and Jonathan Rosenberg).'' Cold War Statesmen Confront the Bomb: Nuclear Diplomacy Since 1945|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-198-29468-9}}
* {{Cite book|title=We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History|location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-198-78070-0}}
* {{Cite book|title=The United States and the End of the Cold War: Implications, Reconsiderations and Provocations|location=New York, NY|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1992|isbn=978-0-195-05201-5|url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesendo00gadd}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War|location=New York, NY|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1987|isbn=978-0195043365|url=https://archive.org/details/longpeace}}
* {{Cite book|title=Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy|location=New York, NY|publisher=Oxford University Press|orig-year=1982|year=2005|isbn=978-0195174489|url=https://archive.org/details/strategiesofcon000gadd}}
* {{Cite book|title=Russia, the Soviet Union and the United States: An Interpretive History|location=New York, NY|publisher=McGraw-Hill|orig-year=1978|year=1990|isbn=978-0-075-57258-9|url=https://archive.org/details/russiasovietunio00gadd}}
* {{Cite book|title=The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941–1947|location=New York, NY|publisher=Columbia University Press|orig-year=1972|year=2000|isbn=978-0-231-12239-9|url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesorig0000gadd}}

=== Articles and chapters ===
* {{Cite book|chapter=Grand Strategies in the Cold War|title=''In Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad, eds.,'' The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Volume II: Crises and Détente ''(pp.&nbsp;1–21)''|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-521-83720-0}}
* {{Cite journal|title=Ending Tyranny: The past and future of an idea|url=http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=459|journal=The American Interest|issue=Sep–Oct 2008|access-date=15 April 2013|ref={{Harvid|Gaddis|2008}}|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525021055/http://the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=459|archive-date=25 May 2013}}
* {{Cite journal|title=Grand Strategy in the Second Term|url=http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/60421/john-lewis-gaddis/grand-strategy-in-the-second-term|journal=Foreign Affairs|volume=84|issue=1|pages=2–15|year=2005|jstor=20034202|last1=Gaddis|first1=John Lewis|doi=10.2307/20034202}}
* {{Cite journal|title=A Grand Strategy of Transformation|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2002/11/01/a_grand_strategy_of_transformation|journal=Foreign Policy|pages=50–57|issue=Nov–Dec 2002|access-date=15 April 2013}}
* {{Cite book|chapter=On Starting All Over Again: A Naïve Approach to the Study of the Cold War|title=''In Odd Arne Westad, ed.,'' Reviewing the Cold War: Approaches, Interpretations, Theory ''(pp.&nbsp;27–42)''|location=London & Portland, OR|publisher=Frank Cass|year=2000|isbn=978-0-714-65072-2|title-link=Odd Arne Westad}}
* {{Cite journal|title=On Moral Equivalency and Cold War History|url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/gaddis.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000817164316/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/gaddis.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2000-08-17|journal=Ethics & International Affairs|volume=10|pages=131–148|year=1996|doi=10.1111/j.1747-7093.1996.tb00007.x|last1=Gaddis|first1=John Lewis|s2cid=145147000 }}
* {{Cite journal|title=The Tragedy of Cold War History|journal=Diplomatic History|volume=17|number=1|pages=1–16|year=1993|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7709.1993.tb00156.x|last1=Gaddis|first1=John Lewis|doi-access=free}}
* {{Cite journal|title=The Cold War, the Long Peace, and the Future|journal=Diplomatic History|volume=16|number=2|pages=234–246|year=1992|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7709.1992.tb00499.x|last1=Gaddis|first1=John Lewis}}
* {{Cite journal|title=The Soviet Side of the Cold War: A Symposium: Introduction|journal=Diplomatic History|volume=15|number=4|pages=523–526|year=1991|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7709.1991.tb00145.x|last1=Gaddis|first1=John Lewis}}
* {{Cite journal|title=New Conceptual Approaches to the Study of American Foreign Relations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives|journal=Diplomatic History|volume=14|number=3|pages=405–424|year=1990|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7709.1990.tb00098.x|last1=Gaddis|first1=John Lewis}}
* {{Cite journal|title=Intelligence, Espionage, and Cold War Origins|journal=Diplomatic History|volume=13|number=2|pages=191–212|year=1989|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7709.1989.tb00051.x|last1=Gaddis|first1=John Lewis}}
* {{Cite journal|title=The Emerging Post-Revisionist Synthesis on the Origins of the Cold War|journal=Diplomatic History|volume=7|issue=3|pages=171–190|year=1983|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7709.1983.tb00389.x|last1=Gaddis|first1=John Lewis}}
* {{Cite journal|title=The Cold War: Some Lessons for Policy Makers|url=http://www.usnwc.edu/Publications/Naval-War-College-Review/ArchivedIssues/1970s/1974-November-December.aspx|journal=Naval War College Review|volume=27|number=3|pages=2–15|year=1974|ref={{Harvid|Gaddis|1974}}}}

== See also ==
* Containment
* Historiography of the Cold War

== References ==

=== Bibliography ===
{{Refbegin|2|indent=yes}}
*{{Cite journal
 |last= Ascherson |first= Neal |author-link= Neal Ascherson |year= 1997
 |title= Khrushchev's Secret |url= http://www.lrb.co.uk/v19/n20/neal-ascherson/khrushchevs-secret
 |journal= London Review of Books |volume= 19 |issue= 20 |pages= 26–28
 }}
*{{Cite journal
 |last= Costigliola |first= Frank |author-link= List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1995 |year= 2011
 |title= Is This George Kennan?
 |url= http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/dec/08/is-this-george-kennan/?pagination=false
 |journal= The New York Review of Books |volume= 58 |issue= 19 |pages= 4–8
 }}
*{{Cite journal
 |last= Hartung |first= William D. |author-link= William D. Hartung |year= 2003
 |title= Bush as Strategist
 |journal= Foreign Policy |issue= 135 |pages= 6–12 |doi= 10.2307/3183579 |jstor= 3183579 }}
*{{Cite journal
 |last= Hogan |first= Michael J. |author-link= Michael Hogan (academic) |year= 1987
 |title= The Search for a Synthesis: Economic Diplomacy in the Cold War
 |journal= Reviews in American History |volume= 15 |issue= 3 |pages= 493–498
 |doi= 10.2307/2702050 |jstor= 2702050 }}
*{{Cite journal
 |last= Ikenberry |first= G. John |author-link= John Ikenberry | year = 2006
 |title= Book reviews: ''The Cold War: A New History'' by John Lewis Gaddis
 |journal= Foreign Affairs |volume= 85 |issue= 2 |page= 187
 |jstor= 20031922 }}
*{{Cite journal
 | last = Judt | first = Tony | author-link = Tony Judt | year = 2006
 | title = A Story Still to Be Told
 | url = http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2006/mar/23/a-story-still-to-be-told/
 | journal = The New York Review of Books | volume = 53 | number = 5 | pages = 11–15
 }}
*{{Cite journal
 |last= Leffler |first= Melvyn P. |author-link= Melvyn P. Leffler |year= 1999
 |title= The Cold War: What Do 'We Now Know'?
 |journal= The American Historical Review |volume= 104 |issue= 2 |pages= 501–524
 |doi= 10.2307/2650378 |jstor= 2650378 }}
*{{Cite journal
 |last= Painter |first= David S. |author-link= David S. Painter |year= 2006
 |title= A Partial History of the Cold War
 |journal= Cold War History |volume= 6 |number= 4 |pages= 527–534
 |doi= 10.1080/14682740600979295 |s2cid= 155058853 }}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}

* [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.2092 John Lewis Gaddis Papers (MS 2092).] Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
{{PulitzerPrize BiographyorAutobiographyAuthors 2001–2025}}

{{Cold war}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaddis, John Lewis}}