65th Annual Lecture of the Medical Library Associates

Writing George Kennan's Biography by John L. Gaddis, Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History, Yale University.

Wednesday April 17, 4:00 pm
Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, 333 Cedar Street

Yale historian John Gaddis will present the keynote address for the 65th Annual Lecture sponsored by the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library Associates.

A graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, Gaddis came to Yale in 1997 after teaching for many years at Ohio University. He has also held visiting professorships at the Naval War College, the University of Helsinki, Princeton University, and Oxford University. At Yale he teaches courses in Cold War history, grand strategy, biography, and historical methods, and is also the Director of the Brady Johnson Program in Grand Strategy.

Gaddis is the official biographer of the seminal 20th century statesman George F. Kennan. After extensive interviews with Kennan and exclusive access to his archives, this eminent scholar of the Cold War completed “George F. Kennan: An American Life” in 2011. Kennan was one of the most influential American diplomats of the Cold War era; he wrote two significant documents that defined the strategy of containment for the U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union for four decades. Kennan was also the architect of the Marshall Plan and became one of the most outspoken critics of American diplomacy.

A reception will follow the lecture at 5:15 pm in the Beaumont Room. Both talk and reception are free and open to the public.

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