History, Theories And Concerns Of Realities

American scholar John Gaddis is a well-known expert on the history of cold war and the diplomatic history of America at the contemporary era.Scholars at home and abroad have carried out some enlightening researches on his methods of historiography,developments of thoughts and views on international relations.However,the vast majority of these achievements are reviews or pieces of articles with limited original documents,referring to some perspectives of Mr.Gaddis at one time or of certain problems.As a result,many scholars have described Gaddis as a character with "multiple portraits".Deeper insight into his thoughts will promote our understanding of relationship among historical empirical researches,theoretical explorations and care for of realities,enhance the perceptions of contemporary American intellectual life in Chinese academic circles,and expand the field of cold war history studies.The contents of this article are summarized as follows.The introduction part aims to expound the significance of this article,the existing representative achievements,and the research methods and literatures that I have followed and used.The first chapter is“the historian displaying his talent for the first time”.Western scholars used to call the cold war "the third world war".From the late 1940 s to the early 1970 s,the study of the origins of the cold war by the "orthodox" and "revisionist" scholars of American diplomatic history had come accross a bottleneck.At this point,the emerging disciplines “international relations” which came into being after the First World War has continued to mature.Structural realism theory of its realistic school adhered to the strict separation of “history” and “theory”,but it also inadvertently provided a worthful viewpoint for explaining the origins of the cold war.The United States and the Origins of the Cold War,1941-1947,which was publishedby John Gaddis in1972,was a book that marks studies after the“post-revisionist”school of the cold war history began to mount the stage of the academic history.To some extent,its interpretation of the origins of the cold war was consistent with structural realism theory.The second chapter is “between History and ‘Jing’”.Historiography values the checking and interpretation of the literatures,and “Jingxue” emphasizes to find laws.For contemporary scholars,the relationship between them is somewhat similar with that of historical empirical researches and theories.In the completion of the study of the origins of the cold war,Gaddis began to study the history of relations between United States and Russia(Soviet Union)in the long run,as well as the history of the American strategies of containment.At the same time,his works also involved in strategic theory,prospects of the discipline of American diplomatic history and the reality of U.S.-Soviet relations.Before the end of the cold war,an interdisciplinary approach to promote historical research is the most admirable idea for John Gaddis.His academic practice also proved that the historian is not necessarily good at summarizing abstract theories,but their researches are often able to find new and specific knowledge for the change of theories.In Gaddis’ s works,we can find the“simple descriptions”of the constructivism theories and concept of “soft power” in post-cold war international relations.The third chapter is "the new history of cold war" and "the way of America".In1991,the Soviet Union abruptly collapsed in an unexpected way,which made the scholars of international relations extremely embarrassed and even aphasic.John Gaddis seriously reflected his predictions of the probable results of the cold war before its end,the achievements of “post-revisionist”school,as well as the existing theories and approaches in the academic field of international relations,then put forward the initiatives of “new cold war history studies”,which continued the ideological trend of criticizing both the worship of “Rationality” since the 19 th century and idea patterns of 20 century totalitarianism.The fourth chapter is “what is for‘objectivity’" and‘legitimacy’”.With the advent of the 20 th century,the "objectivity" of history is increasingly challenged bypostmodern historical philosophy and social science.The former often questions the“possibility” of “objectivity” pursued by history,while the latter launches an attack to its“legitimacy”.Senior "interdisciplinary" historian,John Gaddis refrred to the idea of“science”in field of the contemporary natural science,and sublated the seriously metaphysical concept of “objectivity” prevailed among the 19 th century mainstream historians,which made his defense for the“possibility” and “legitimacy” of historical“objectivity” in the post-cold war era much more penetrated and useful to stimulate our reflections on the cynicism in academic field,empty “futuristic” and“Eettvemdung” of real life everywhere.The conclusion is to summarize the process of changes in John Gaddis’ s academic thoughts and their general characteristics.“New”and “conservative” are the most lasting and unique characteristics of history.In the post-cold war era,the progresses of studies of diplomatic history and international relations are driven by the historians who are the familiar with theories and the international relations theorists who are good at cheking and interpreting documents.