America's Rasputin

America's Rasputin PDF Author: David Milne
Publisher: Hill and Wang
ISBN: 1429957034
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
David Milne's America's Rasputin provides the first major study of the man who pushed two presidents into Vietnam. Walt Rostow's meteoric rise to power—from Flatbush, Brooklyn, to the West Wing of the White House—seemed to capture the promise of the American dream. Hailing from humble origins, Rostow became an intellectual powerhouse: a professor of economic history at MIT and an influential foreign policy adviser to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Too influential, according to some. While Rostow inspired respect and affection, he also made some powerful enemies. Averell Harriman, one of America's most celebrated diplomats, described Rostow as "America's Rasputin" for the unsavory influence he exerted on presidential decision-making. Rostow was the first to advise Kennedy to send U.S. combat troops to South Vietnam and the first to recommend the bombing of North Vietnam. He framed a policy of military escalation, championed recklessly optimistic reporting, and then advised LBJ against pursuing a compromise peace with North Vietnam. David Milne examines one man's impact on the United States' worst-ever military defeat. It is a portrait of good intentions and fatal misjudgments. A true ideologue, Rostow believed that it is beholden upon the United States to democratize other nations and do "good," no matter what the cost. America's Rasputin explores the consequences of this idealistic but unyielding dogma.

America's Rasputin

America's Rasputin PDF Author: David Milne
Publisher: Hill and Wang
ISBN: 1429957034
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 333

Get Book

Book Description
David Milne's America's Rasputin provides the first major study of the man who pushed two presidents into Vietnam. Walt Rostow's meteoric rise to power—from Flatbush, Brooklyn, to the West Wing of the White House—seemed to capture the promise of the American dream. Hailing from humble origins, Rostow became an intellectual powerhouse: a professor of economic history at MIT and an influential foreign policy adviser to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Too influential, according to some. While Rostow inspired respect and affection, he also made some powerful enemies. Averell Harriman, one of America's most celebrated diplomats, described Rostow as "America's Rasputin" for the unsavory influence he exerted on presidential decision-making. Rostow was the first to advise Kennedy to send U.S. combat troops to South Vietnam and the first to recommend the bombing of North Vietnam. He framed a policy of military escalation, championed recklessly optimistic reporting, and then advised LBJ against pursuing a compromise peace with North Vietnam. David Milne examines one man's impact on the United States' worst-ever military defeat. It is a portrait of good intentions and fatal misjudgments. A true ideologue, Rostow believed that it is beholden upon the United States to democratize other nations and do "good," no matter what the cost. America's Rasputin explores the consequences of this idealistic but unyielding dogma.

America's Rasputin

America's Rasputin PDF Author: David Milne
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780374103866
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Walt Rostow's meteoric rise to power--from Flatbush, Brooklyn, to the West Wing of the White House--seemed to capture the promise of the American dream. Hailing from humble origins, Rostow became an intellectual powerhouse: a professor of economic history at MIT and an influential foreign policy adviser to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Too influential, according to some. While Rostow inspired respect and affection, he also made some powerful enemies. Averell Harriman, one of America's most celebrated diplomats, described Rostow as "America's Rasputin" for the unsavory influence he exerted on presidential decision-making. Rostow was the first to advise Kennedy to send U.S. combat troops to South Vietnam and the first to recommend the bombing of North Vietnam. He framed a policy of military escalation, championed recklessly optimistic reporting, and then advised LBJ against pursuing a compromise peace with North Vietnam. David Milne examines one man's impact on the United States' worst-ever military defeat. It is a portrait of good intentions and fatal misjudgments. A true ideologue, Rostow believed that it is beholden upon the United States to democratize other nations and do "good," no matter what the cost. America's Rasputin explores the consequences of this idealistic but unyielding dogma.

Rasputin

Rasputin PDF Author: Douglas Smith
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374711232
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 848

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Book Description
On the centenary of the death of Rasputin comes a definitive biography that will dramatically change our understanding of this fascinating figure A hundred years after his murder, Rasputin continues to excite the popular imagination as the personification of evil. Numerous biographies, novels, and films recount his mysterious rise to power as Nicholas and Alexandra's confidant and the guardian of the sickly heir to the Russian throne. His debauchery and sinister political influence are the stuff of legend, and the downfall of the Romanov dynasty was laid at his feet. But as the prizewinning historian Douglas Smith shows, the true story of Rasputin's life and death has remained shrouded in myth. A major new work that combines probing scholarship and powerful storytelling, Rasputin separates fact from fiction to reveal the real life of one of history's most alluring figures. Drawing on a wealth of forgotten documents from archives in seven countries, Smith presents Rasputin in all his complexity--man of God, voice of peace, loyal subject, adulterer, drunkard. Rasputin is not just a definitive biography of an extraordinary and legendary man but a fascinating portrait of the twilight of imperial Russia as it lurched toward catastrophe.

Rasputin

Rasputin PDF Author: Richard Cullen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781906447076
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
History.

Farewell to Matyora

Farewell to Matyora PDF Author: Valentin Rasputin
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 9780810113299
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
A fine example of Village Prose from the post-Stalin era, Farewell to Matyora decries the loss of the Russian peasant culture to the impersonal, soulless march of progress. It is the final summer of the peasant village of Matyora. A dam will be completed in the fall, destroying the village. Although their departure is inevitable, the characters over when, and even whether, they should leave. A haunting story with a heartfelt theme, Farewell to Matyora is a passionate plea for humanity and an eloquent cry for a return to an organic life.

Rasputin

Rasputin PDF Author: Frances Welch
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476755507
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Originally published: London: Short Books, 2014.

Rasputin's Revenge

Rasputin's Revenge PDF Author: John Lescroart
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101554835
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Auguste Lupa, reputed son of Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective of all time—and possessor of a brilliant deductive mind in his own right—is summoned to the court of the Czar. There, with a bit of assistance from none other than Holmes and Watson, he untangles a chilling plot that holds the Winter Palace in a lethal grip…Don't miss this historical mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of the Dismas Hardy series. "It was good to have Holmes and Watson drop in on the action...There's a lot of Sherlock in his son."—Abilene Reporter-News "The perfect vehicle for mystery fans who relish a good detective story.” —Macon Telegraph and News Praise for John Lescroart's Dismas Hardy novels "Today’s best legal thriller series.”—Lee Child “Grisham and Turow remain the two best-known writers in the genre. There is, however, a third novelist at work today who deserves to be considered alongside Turow and Grisham. His name is John Lescroart.”—Chicago Sun-Times “Lescroart's books are high entertainment, with accurate legal and police procedures leading the action.”—Sacramento Bee “A gifted writer….I read him with great pleasure.”—Richard North Patterson “Blistering courtroom sequences.…the undisputed king of the legal thriller.”—Providence Sunday Journal “Unfolds like a classic Law & Order.”—Entertainment Weekly John Lescroart is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous legal thrillers and mysteries, most of them set in contemporary San Francisco. Among his novels are The Fall, The Keeper, The Ophelia Cut, The Hunt Club, The Second Chair, The First Law, Nothing But the Truth, and Dead Irish, as well as two novels featuring Auguste Lupa, the reputed son of Sherlock Holmes.

Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon

Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon PDF Author: Mike Mignola
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
ISBN: 1506704980
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
With the World War II raging, Hellboy's future guardian Trevor Bruttenholm enlists with Britain's Military Intelligence, where he uncovers a collection of strange messages. Believing it to be an occult language, he follows his hunch and is thrown into a world of animated corpses, deadly mystics, and Nazi agents. The treacherous journey leads him face to face with the man who will bring Hellboy to Earth--Rasputin! The two men responsible for Hellboy face off!

Worldmaking

Worldmaking PDF Author: David Milne
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374292566
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 625

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Book Description
This book offers "a new take on the history of American diplomacy. Rather than retracing a familiar story of realism versus idealism, David Milne suggests that U.S. foreign policy has also been crucially divided between those who view statecraft as an art and those who believe it can aspire toward the certainties of science. [The book] follows a colorful cast of characters who built on each other's ideas to create the policies we have today ... From the age of steam engines to the age of drones, Milne reveals patterns of aspirant worldmaking that have remained impervious to the passage of time. The result is a panoramic history of U.S. foreign policy driven by ideas and the lives and times of their creators"--

The Icarus Syndrome

The Icarus Syndrome PDF Author: Peter Beinart
Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing
ISBN: 052285804X
Category : Ambition
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
In The Icarus Syndrome, Peter Beinart tells a tale as old as the Greeks - a story about the seductions of success. Beinart describes Washington on the eve of three wars - World War I, Vietnam and Iraq - three moments when American leaders decided they could remake the world in their image. Each time, leading intellectuals declared that history was over, and the spread of democracy was inevitable. Each time, a president held the nation in the palm of his hand. And each time, a war conceived in arrogance brought untold tragedy. In dazzling colour, Beinart portrays three extraordinary generations: the progressives who took America into World War I, led by Woodrow Wilson, the lonely preacher's son who became the closest thing to a political messiah the world had ever seen. The Camelot intellectuals who took America into Vietnam, led by Lyndon Johnson, who lay awake night after night shaking with fear that his countrymen considered him weak. And George W. Bush and the post-cold war neoconservatives, the romantic bullies who believed they could bludgeon the Middle East and liberate it at the same time. Like Icarus, each of these generations crafted 'wings' - a theory about America's relationship to the world. They flapped carefully at first, but gradually lost their inhibitions until, giddy with success, they flew into the sun. But every era also brought new leaders and thinkers who found wisdom in pain. They reconciled American optimism - our belief that anything is possible - with the realities of a world that will never fully bend to our will. In their struggles lie the seeds of American renewal today. Based on years of research, The Icarus Syndrome is a provocative and strikingly original account of hubris in the American century - and how we learn from the tragedies that result.