Gaddis Wins History Prize for Kennan Biography February 29, 2012, 11:32 am The historian John Lewis Gaddis has won the annual American History Book Prize for "George F. Kennan: An American Life," the New-York Historical Society announced. Roger Hertog, the chair of the society's board of trustees, praised Mr. Gaddis for bringing to life "the story of the grand strategist who shaped foreign policy over the last 60 years." Mr. Gaddis, a professor at Yale University and the author of numerous books about the cold war, began researching his biography back in 1982, when Kennan, best known for outlining the containment strategy against the Soviet Union in his famous 1946 "Long Telegram" from Moscow, was 78. He died in 2005, at age 101. The book, published by the Penguin Press, received respectful attention from critics when it finally appeared last November, including a 4,400-word assessment in the New York Times Book Review by Henry Kissinger, who called the book "as close to the final word as possible on one of the most important, complex, moving, challenging and exasperating American public servants." The prize, which comes with a cash award of $50,000 and the official title of American Historian Laureate, will be awarded on April 13 as part of the historical society's "Weekend With History" event in Manhattan. Past winners have included Gordon S. Wood, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Ron Chernow.