Joseph E. Davies: Envoy to the Soviets

by Elizabeth Maclean

Overview

This biography is a complete reassessment of an important American envoy to the Soviet Union in years that were critical in determining postwar East-West relations. Using formerly untouched primary sources, Dr. MacLean sheds a different light on a controversial figure and on his relationship with world leaders, senior diplomats, and Soviet experts during the period under study. She offers intimate glimpses into the perceptions and motivations behind major U.S. and Soviet policies from 1936 to 1946. Her fascinating account of this practical idealist is good reading for all interested in diplomatic history and Soviet-American relations.

This is a close study of the complex political, philosophical, and personal factors that guided Joseph Davies in his dealings with Roosevelt, Truman, Stalin and Lipvinov, Molotov, Kennan, and Bohlen, to name just a few. A more balanced interpretation can now be offered of Davies than the traditional two-dimensional stereotype.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275935801
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/10/1992
Series:	Contributions in Philosophy; 50
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

ELIZABETH KIMBALL MACLEAN is Chair of the Department of History and Political Science at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio. She specializes in twentieth century U.S.-Soviet relations.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Midwest Lawyer and Progressive Democrat
Mr. Ambassador, 1937
Ambassador-at-Large
Davies and Stalin, 1938
A Three-Year Hiatus
The Liaison, 1941
The Litvinov Connection, 1942
The Second Mission to Moscow, May 1943
Evolution of the Role
Mission to London, May 1945
Potsdam, July 1945
The Cold War
Epilogue
Bibliography