Kennan diaries Ww norton & co (WW Norton & Co)

Over the course of his 101-year life, George F. Kenna - author of the "X" article, father of "containment" and pre-eminent Cold War authority - filled 20,000 diary pages with philosophy, poetry, vivid description, and keen political and moral insights. Now historian Frank Costigliola has selected and annotated the first public collection of Kennan's diaries. These pages cover a man - and talented writer - who came into greatness during the first stirrings of the Cold War, a man never satisfied with his accomplishments despite the ambassadorships, the years of political influence and the accolades. Together, these diaries tell the complete narrative of Kennan's life, in his own unflinching words, and through him, the arc of world events in the twentieth century.