On Grand Strategy
Published on 2. April 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-0-14-198722-4 (ISBN)
Description
'A training manual for our troubled times ... It makes sense of our world, but is also capable of beautifully crafted pithy historical judgements. ... It is a book that cares about liberty, choice and a moral compass, that warns against hubris' Roger Boyes, The Times
John Lewis Gaddis, the distinguished historian and acclaimed author of The Cold War, has for almost two decades co-taught the grand strategy seminar at Yale University with his colleagues Charles Hill and Paul Kennedy. Now, in On Grand Strategy, Gaddis reflects with insight and wit on what he has learned.
In chapters extending from the ancient world through World War II, Gaddis assesses grand strategic theory and practice in Herodotus, Thucydides, Sun Tzu, Octavian/Augustus, Saint Augustine, Machiavelli,Elizabeth I, Philip II, the American Founding Fathers, Clausewitz, Tolstoy,Lincoln, Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Isaiah Berlin.
'For the past 16 years Gaddis has taught a course on grand strategy to students at Yale University. Reading his book, you wish every university could offer it. Gaddis roves across the centuries, offering advice on subjects from statecraft and warfare to leading a worthwhile life' Phillip Delves Broughton, Evening Standard
John Lewis Gaddis, the distinguished historian and acclaimed author of The Cold War, has for almost two decades co-taught the grand strategy seminar at Yale University with his colleagues Charles Hill and Paul Kennedy. Now, in On Grand Strategy, Gaddis reflects with insight and wit on what he has learned.
In chapters extending from the ancient world through World War II, Gaddis assesses grand strategic theory and practice in Herodotus, Thucydides, Sun Tzu, Octavian/Augustus, Saint Augustine, Machiavelli,Elizabeth I, Philip II, the American Founding Fathers, Clausewitz, Tolstoy,Lincoln, Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Isaiah Berlin.
'For the past 16 years Gaddis has taught a course on grand strategy to students at Yale University. Reading his book, you wish every university could offer it. Gaddis roves across the centuries, offering advice on subjects from statecraft and warfare to leading a worthwhile life' Phillip Delves Broughton, Evening Standard
Reviews / Votes
An extraordinary treatise on the need to teach the principles of sound strategy to today's leaders... It makes sense of our world, but is also capable of beautifully crafted pithy historical judgements. ... It is a book that cares about liberty, choice and a moral compass, that warns against the hubris of an angry Bonaparte on the turn in a Russian winter, against leaders who do not listen or learn. A training manual for our troubled times -- Roger Boyes * The Times * On Grand Strategy is many things - a thoughtful validation of the liberal arts, an argument for literature over social science, an engaging reflection on university education and some timely advice that lasting victory comes from winning what you can rather than all that you want. -- Victor Davis Hanson * The New York Times * A brilliant book - learned, seductively written, deep -- Roger Kimball * New Criterion * Gaddis has indisputably earned the right to plow different fields of historical inquiry, which he does in On Grand Strategy with self-evident glee and peripatetic curiosity -- Gordon M. Goldstein * Washington Post * A long walk with a single, delightful mind, which makes it much easier for the reader to comprehend the lessons that cohere across continents and millennia -- John Nagl * Wall Street Journal *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
282 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-198722-4 (9780141987224)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
John Lewis Gaddis
On Grand Strategy
E-Book
04/2018
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€9.49
Available for download
Person
John Lewis Gaddis is an internationally renowned historian of the Cold War and has been called 'the dean of Cold War historians' by The New York Times. He is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of History at Yale University and the author of numerous books, including The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, The Landscape of History and Surprise, Security and the American Experience. George F. Kennan, An American Life won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. He is a 2005 winner of the US National Humanities Medal and lives in New Haven.