In the late 1940s, a bright but relatively obscure American diplomat named George Kennan set out the strategic vision that would define United States policy toward the Soviet Union for the next four and a half decades. It would propel Kennan to dizzying heights of influence and bring him lasting bitterness and regret. Based on exclusive access to Kennan and his archives, this masterwork by one of our greatest Cold War historians reveals, as never before the brilliant, tortured thinker who became an outspoken critic of the very strategy that made his name A profound work of history and biography, George F. Kennan is a brilliant portrait of a man and the era he shaped.