Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Paul R. Viotti is professor emeritus at the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs at the University of Denver. His books include International Relations Theory (seventh edition, 2023); American Foreign Policy and National Security (2020); and The Dollar and National Security (2014).During the twentieth century’s last four decades, Kenneth Waltz towered over the field of international relations theory. In this must-read intellectual biography, Paul R. Viotti—a Waltz student and himself an accomplished scholar—provides insight into Waltz’s formative life experiences and traces the evolution of Waltz’s thinking about international politics.
- Christopher Layne, author of <i>The Peace of Illusions: American Grand Strategy from 1940 to the Present</i>,
Not since Hans Morgenthau has an individual done more than Kenneth Waltz did to shape the discipline of international relations, as taught both in America and around the world. While many of us know his work, few knew him as a person, and as Viotti’s deep exploration of Waltz shows, Waltz’s life experiences shaped him as both a person and a thinker. Any student of international relations should read this book in order to understand how and why Waltz defined the field.
- Paul Poast, author of <i>Arguing About Alliances: The Art of Agreement in Military-Pact Negotiations</i>,
Viotti traces Kenneth Waltz’s early wartime experiences and formative intellectual engagement with the theories of Kant and Rousseau in showing how he became the pivotal international relations scholar of our era.
- Jack Snyder, author of <i>Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times</i>,
Comprehensive, informative, sensitive to the human factor. . . . Contemplat[es] deeply the ideas and thought-world of the man who up to now is the IR field’s most indispensable theorist.
Journal of Cold War Studies
Viotti’s biography adds to our understanding of the development of Waltz’s thinking and his mode of working. . . . Offers a number of insights into Waltz’s life and intellectual development.
Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society
This book is a groundbreaking intellectual biography of Kenneth Waltz, shedding new light on the development and significance of his key contributions. Paul R. Viotti draws on extensive, candid interviews with Waltz as well as Waltz’s personal files and archival research to provide a nuanced account of the great scholar’s life and thought. He traces the intellectual sources and personal experiences that shaped Waltz’s work, including an intense Lutheran upbringing; service in World War II and the Korean War; and the academic environments of Oberlin College, Columbia University, and the University of California, Berkeley. Viotti examines the key influences on Waltz’s major works, Man, the State, and War and Theory of International Politics, and analyzes their distinctive insights. Engaging with the views of Waltz’s critics and featuring reminiscences from his colleagues, this book is a compelling portrait of an intellectual titan.
Introduction: An Intellectual Portrait of Kenneth Neal Waltz
1. Boyhood
2. The Oberlin and World War II Years
3. Return to Oberlin
4. The Columbia and Korean War Years
5. Man, the State, and War (1959)
6. The Swarthmore, London, and Brandeis Years
7. Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics (1967)
8. The Berkeley Years
9. Waltz as Political Theorist
10. Theory of International Politics (1979)
11. Luminary to Followers, Lightning Rod to Critics
12. Retirement Years and Last Days
Acknowledgments
Time Line
Appendix: Waltz’s Last Curriculum Vitae and Partial List of His Students
Notes
Selected References
Index