“This is where the capitalists got it right: they were better than the communists at learning from history, because they never bought into any single, sacrosanct, and therefore unchallengeable theory of history.” — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share Image
“The most important one was the belief, which went back to Lenin, that capitalists would never be able to cooperate with one another for very long. Their inherent greediness—the irresistible urge to place profits above politics—would sooner or later prevail,… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share Image
“It’s not a very nice solution,” Kennedy acknowledged, “but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.”54 The president could… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
The United States came out of the 1990s, if anything, in an even greater position of hegemony and preeminence than it was at the… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
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 Copy Share
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… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
“Stalin’s first move, uncharacteristically, was to apologize to the Chinese comrades for having underestimated them: “Our opinions are not always correct,” he told a… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
I think the way to think about the impact of Hiroshima is to think about it as a sudden shift in the balance of… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
“Thanks to an ingenious constitution, their geographical isolation from potential rivals, and a magnificent endowment of natural resources, the Americans managed to build an… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
“I can’t take communism nor can you, but to cross this bridge I would hold hands with the Devil.” — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
“From 1957 through 1961, Khrushchev openly, repeatedly, and bloodcurdlingly threatened the West with nuclear annihilation. Soviet missile capabilities were so far superior to those… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
“Historical consciousness therefore leaves you, as does maturity itself, with a simultaneous sense of your own significance and insignificance. Like Friedrich's wanderer, you dominate… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
“His months of teaching experience were now a lost age of youth and innocence. He could no longer sit in his office at Fort… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
If there is one great power, and the great power has taken upon itself the right to preempt and is choosing for itself when… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
“[I]n the interests of our common tasks, we must sometimes overlook their stupidities,” one Soviet official explained in 1973.” — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
“This is where the capitalists got it right: they were better than the communists at learning from history, because they never bought into any… — John Lewis Gaddis Copy Share
