First edition of George F. Kennan’s influential analysis of Soviet–Western relations from 1917 to the postwar period. Based on a series of lectures delivered between 1957 and 1960, the book offers a lucid, historically grounded perspective on the ideological and diplomatic evolution of the USSR under Lenin and Stalin. Chapters 9 and 10 originally appeared in The American Scholar, and Chapter 18 in The Atlantic Monthly. Published by Little, Brown and Company in association with The Atlantic Monthly Press. A key Cold War-era work by one of America’s foremost diplomats and historians.