Four Books Under Review

Reviews by Robert Blaisdell

Gregory J. Wallance
St. Martin’s Press; $30; 304 pp.

Wallance recounts the adventures of the first of the two George Kennans who became famous for their analyses of the Russian or Soviet empires: “The George Kennan of this story [1845-1924] was an intrepid explorer, a leading American journalist, and after his Siberian exile investigation, a moral force whose writings and lectures about the inhumanity of the exile system compelled Russia to implement reforms.” The other George Kennan (1904-2005), a distant cousin, received an appreciative biography last year (see Russian Life, Spring 2023).