Beisner, Robert L. 1936–

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Beisner, Robert L. 1936–

(Robert Lee Beisner)

PERSONAL:

Born March 8, 1936, in Lexington, NE; son of Elmer John and Charlene Beisner; married Mary Elizabeth Brinton Stone, June 14, 1959 (divorced, March, 1976); married Valerie French (a professor), 1976; children: four. Education: Attended Hastings College, 1954-56; University of Chicago, M.A., 1960, Ph.D., 1965.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Washington, DC. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, educator. University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, instructor in social sciences, 1962-63; Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, instructor in history, 1963-65; American University, Washington, DC, assistant professor, 1965-67, associate professor, 1967-71, professor of history, 1971-97, department chair, 1981-90, director of general education, 1993-97, professor emeritus, 1997—.

MEMBER:

PEN, Society of American Historians, Organization of American Historians, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (president, 2002), Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Allan Nevins Prize, Society of American Historians, 1966, and John H. Dunning Prize, American Historical Association, 1968, both for thesis, "The Anti-imperialist Impulse: The Mugwumps and the Republicans, 1898-1900"; National Endowment for the Humanities, fellowship, 1968-69, and summer research stipend, 1976; Robert H. Ferrell Book Award, 2007, for Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War.

WRITINGS:

Twelve against Empire: The Anti-imperialists, 1898-1900, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1968, with new preface, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1985, reprinted with new foreword, Imprint (Chicago, IL), 1992.

From the Old Diplomacy to the New, 1865-1900, AHM Publishing (Northbrook, IL), 1975, 2nd edition, Harlan Davidson (Arlington Heights, IL), 1986.

(Editor, with Joan R. Challinor) Arms at Rest: Peacemaking and Peacekeeping in American History, Greenwood Press (New York, NY), 1987.

(Editor, with Kurt Hanson) American Foreign Relations since 1600: A Guide to the Literature, two volumes, 2nd edition, American Bibliographical Center-Clio Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 2003.

Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of articles to numerous professional journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

A historian and author of works on American foreign policy, Robert L. Beisner examines Cold War diplomacy through the lens of one of its premier twentieth-century policy makers in his 2006 study, Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War. Years in the writing, the book presents, as Henry A. Kissinger commented in the New York Times Book Review, a "sweeping and thoughtful account of Acheson's tenure" as secretary of state from 1949 to 1953. Kissinger further observed: "Acheson emerges from the Beisner book as the greatest secretary of state of the postwar period in the sweep of his design, his ability to implement it, the extraordinary associates with whom he surrounded himself and the nobility of his personal conduct."

Heading the State Department under the presidency of Harry Truman, Acheson handled European matters more skillfully than Asian ones, according to Beisner's portrayal. The strategist was instrumental in rebuilding Europe and helping form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a bulwark against Soviet imperialism. Though Republicans reviled him at the time, over the years Acheson has achieved iconic status on both sides of the political aisle. Likewise, Dean Acheson has received wide critical acclaim. Also writing in the New York Times Book Review, Walter Isaacson thought Beisner's book was "a solidly researched and balanced tome." Isaacson went on to praise the author's "prodigious mining of archives and oral histories [which] makes [the book] actually far more reliable and accurate" than Acheson's memoir, Present at Creation. For Booklist contributor Gilbert Taylor, Beisner's account presented "significant cold-war historiography," while a reviewer for Publishers Weekly found it a "thorough biography." National Review critic Michael Knox Beran called Dean Acheson "an excellent though exhausting study," and Commentary reviewer Mark Falcoff found it "immense in size, scope, and detail." Ernest W. Lefever, writing in the Washington Times, termed Dean Acheson "one of the very best accounts of Dean Acheson as secretary of state."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Heritage, August, 1968, review of Twelve against Empire: The Anti-imperialists, 1898-1900.

Booklist, September 15, 2006, Gilbert Taylor, review of Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War, p. 17.

Commentary, February, 2007, Mark Falcoff, review of Dean Acheson.

Economist, August 26, 2006, "Order by Coercion; Postwar American History," review of Dean Acheson, p. 68.

Encounter, winter, 1969, review of Twelve against Empire.

Library Journal, July, 2003, Marcia L. Sprules, review of American Foreign Relations since 1600: A Guide to the Literature, p. 71; September 1, 2006, Ed Goedeken, review of Dean Acheson, p. 155.

National Review, November 20, 2006, Michael Knox Beran, "The Wise Man," review of Dean Acheson, p. 47.

New Republic, January 25, 1969, review of Twelve against Empire.

New York Times Book Review, April 7, 1968, review of Twelve against Empire; October 4, 2006, Walter Isaacson, "Facing a Global Threat with Nonpartisan Clarity," review of Dean Acheson; October 15, 2006, Henry A. Kissinger, "Cold Warrior," review of Dean Acheson.

Publishers Weekly, July 24, 2006, review of Dean Acheson, p. 47.

Washington Post Book World, August 4, 1968, review of Twelve against Empire.

Washington Times, December 17, 2006, Ernest W. Lefever, "Statesman Who Helped Define America's Cold War Policy," review of Dean Acheson.