Around the Cragged Hill: A Personal and Political Philosophy was published by Norton in 1993, when Kennan was eighty-nine. It is his most personal and most controversial book — an attempt to set down, in the twilight of an extraordinarily long and productive life, his fundamental beliefs about human nature, government, and the good life.
The book ranges widely: from reflections on human nature (Kennan accepts original sin as a political reality, even if he does not quite accept it as a theological doctrine), through analyses of American government (he finds it too large, too centralized, too dominated by money and television, and too responsive to the passions of the moment), to proposals for reform (the most striking being his suggestion that the United States would be better governed if it were divided into nine or twelve smaller republics).
His sections on immigration and population provoked the most controversy. Kennan argued that the United States could not absorb unlimited immigration without losing its cultural coherence, and that world overpopulation was the underlying cause of most environmental and political crises. These positions were heterodox for a man of the liberal establishment, and the book received more criticism than any of his previous works.
Yet the book is also a moving document of old age — a man taking stock of his life and times, acknowledging his failures and limitations, and stating his beliefs without the diplomatic circumlocution that had characterized his public career. It is Kennan at his most honest and most vulnerable.
Collecting Around the Cragged Hill
First edition (Norton, New York, 1993): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $10–$25
- Paperback editions: $5–$10
Projected values (2026–2036): Modest appreciation.
The Elder Statesman
Around the Cragged Hill: A Personal and Political Philosophy (1993) is Kennan’s attempt to articulate his broader philosophical views — not just about foreign policy but about democracy, environment, education, and the human condition. Written at age eighty-nine, the book is curmudgeonly, idiosyncratic, and provocative: Kennan argues that American democracy is dysfunctional, that the country is too large to govern effectively, and that environmental destruction is the greatest threat to civilization. The book reveals the full scope of Kennan’s thinking beyond his diplomatic expertise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Kennan conservative or liberal? Neither, in conventional terms. He was a foreign policy realist who opposed military interventionism (conservative on that score) but also advocated environmental protection and criticized consumer capitalism (positions more associated with the left). He was an aristocratic skeptic of democracy who spent his life serving democratic institutions.