Quotes by John Lewis Gaddis

About John Lewis Gaddis:

John Lewis Gaddis is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University. He is best known for his work on the Cold War and grand strategy, and has been hailed as the "Dean of Cold War Historians" by The New York Times. Gaddis is also the official biographer of the seminal 20th-century American statesman George F. Kennan. George F. Kennan: An American Life (2011), his biography of Kennan, won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I expressed skepticism, in the first chapter, about the utility of time machines in historical research. I especially advised against graduate students relying on them, because of the limited perspective you tend to get from being plunked down in som...

John Lewis Gaddis

As my former Yale colleague Rogers Smith has put it: "Elegance is not worth that price.

John Lewis Gaddis

The doctrine of preemption has a long and distinguished history in the history of American foreign policy.

John Lewis Gaddis

If there is one great power, and the great power has taken upon itself the right to preempt and is choosing for itself when and in what circumstances it's going to do that, obviously it leads people in the rest of the world to wonder how far this doc...

John Lewis Gaddis

The United States came out of the 1990s, if anything, in an even greater position of hegemony and preeminence than it was at the beginning of the 1990s.

John Lewis Gaddis

Second terms in the White House open the way for second thoughts.

John Lewis Gaddis

George W. Bush has much to evaluate: he has presided over the most sweeping redesign of U.S. grand strategy since the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

John Lewis Gaddis

It is worth starting with visions, though, because they establish hopes and fears. History then determines which prevail.

John Lewis Gaddis

I don't think there is necessarily a contradiction between being a hegemonic power on the one hand and functioning multilaterally on the other.

John Lewis Gaddis

I think the way to think about the impact of Hiroshima is to think about it as a sudden shift in the balance of power.

John Lewis Gaddis

Author Bio

  • NameJohn Lewis Gaddis
  • DescriptionAmerican historian of the Cold War (b.1941)
  • AliasesGaddis; John Gaddis; J. L. Gaddis
  • BornApril 2, 1941
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionHistorian; Author
  • AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship; Pulitzer Prize For Biography Or Autobiography; National Humanities Medal