John Lewis Gaddis Quotes
It is worth starting with visions, though, because they establish hopes and fears. History then determines which prevail.
Gaddis, John Lewis. The Cold War: A New History. Penguin Press, 2005, p. 5.
As a refugee from Communist Europe where history and memory constantly affect the lives of people for centuries if not millennia, he became a forward thinking individual and wanted to avoid people being mired in the past.
This was an unusually candid speech for any political leader anywhere.
He had followed a guest speaker—a history professor—who was giving the staff a lecture on the history of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) program of the New Deal which had some similar aspects to the Job Corps, like residential living and work projects. However, the major purpose and justification of the CCC was totally different.
Despite this reality, most politicians, if they have the resources and high enough position, surround themselves with experts to advise them and then listen to them to take positions in campaigns or advise them on policy making if they are in office.
John Lewis Gaddis (born 1941) 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 he 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.
