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Righteous Realists: Political Realism, Responsible Power, And American Culture In The Nuclear Age

Joel H. Rosenthal
Reviewed by By Gaddis Smith
Fall 1991
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Joel H. Rosenthal
Louisiana State University Press
1991
191 pp.

By tracing the intellectual biographies of Reinhold Niebuhr, Walter Lippmann, Hans Morgenthau, George Kennan and Dean Acheson, the author uncovers the solid moral foundations beneath the ideas of five men of influence popularly identified with the celebration of power as the central element of international relations. All five modified their thinking in response to the existence of nuclear weapons. A clear, beautifully written book.

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