Our systems are now restored following recent technical disruption, and we’re working hard to catch up on publishing. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Find out more

Recommended product

Popular links

Popular links


American Visions of Europe

American Visions of Europe

American Visions of Europe

Franklin D. Roosevelt, George F. Kennan, and Dean G. Acheson
John Lamberton Harper, The Johns Hopkins University
June 1996
Available
Paperback
9780521566285
$41.99
USD
Paperback

    American Visions of Europe sets three learned and elegantly written portraits against the background of the dramatic events and foreign policy controversies of the twentieth century. John Lamberton Harper's careful examination of three men and their policies--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--creates a new and unique look at the "American Century" through its most prominent protagonists.

    • Author has used a wide range of sources including memoirs and original documents
    • Illuminates America's ambivalent attachment to Europe through the intertwined lives of three American statesmen
    • A book of great relevance for the present juncture

    Reviews & endorsements

    "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

    See more reviews

    Product details

    June 1996
    Paperback
    9780521566285
    396 pages
    233 × 154 × 30 mm
    0.563kg
    3 b/w illus.
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Part I:
    • 1. Franklin Roosevelt, Europe, and American diplomatic culture, 1882–1932
    • 2. The Roosevelt administration and the European question, 1933–1941
    • 3. The Roosevelt solution, 1941–1945
    • Part II:
    • 4. George F. Kennan: the sources of estrangement, 1904–1944
    • 5. Three worlds instead of two: George F. Kennan and Europe, 1944–1950
    • Part III:
    • 6. Dean Acheson, 1893–1947: a Victorian for all seasons
    • 7. Acheson and Europe, 1949–51: a statesman's progress
    • Conclusion
    • Bibliography
    • Index.
      Author
    • John Lamberton Harper , The Johns Hopkins University