Polk's Folly by William Roe Polk

Polk's Folly by William Roe Polk

Polk's Folly is William Polk's captivating investigation of his impressive family tree and of the broader American tale it narrates.

Growing up in Texas in the late 1930s, listening to his grandmother's memories of her childhood amidst the Civil War, Polk became fascinated by tales of his family's engagement in monumental moments of our nation's history. Beginning when Robert Pollok fled Ireland in the 1680s, Polk's saga includes an Indian trader, an early drafter of the Declaration of Independence, one of our greatest presidents, heroes and rascals on both sides of the Civil War, Indian fighters, a World War I diplomat, and Polk's own brother, a journalist who reported on the Nuremberg Trials. Full of stunning detail and based on primary historical documents, Polk's Folly is a grand American chronicle that allows history to include the lives that made it happen.

William R. Polk studied at Harvard and Oxford and taught at Harvard until 1961 when President J. F. Kennedy, McGeorge Bundy, director of the National Security Council, and Under Secretary of State, Chester Bowles put him on the newly reorganized Policy Planning Council. There he was responsible for much of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. He was one of three members of the Crisis Management Committee during the Cuban Missile Crisis; headed the American task force that helped to end the Algerian war; and later he negotiated the Egyptian-Israeli cease fire on the Suez Canal. In 1965, the resigned to become Professor of History at the University of Chicago where he founded the Middle Eastern Studies Center, and subsequently was President of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs. He is author of scores of essays and 17 books on world affairs. In 2012, he organized and chaired the conference on Affordable World Security that has been called the best meeting of its kind ever held in Washington.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780385491501
ISBN 10	0385491506
Title	Polk's Folly
Author	William Roe Polk
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Doubleday Books
Year published	2000-01-18
Number of pages	544
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.