“TO RE-ESTABLISH A TREASURED CONNECTION WITH THE ECONOMIST”

ROSTOW, Walt Whitman. View from the Seventh Floor. New York, Evanston, and London: Harper & Row, (1964). Octavo, original green cloth, original dust jacket. $350.

First edition, presentation copy, of this inside look at Rostow’s work as chairman of the Policy Planning Council, inscribed: “To Anthony Hartley—to recall a lovely morning and to re-establish a treasured connection with The Economist. WW Rostow. 2 June, 1966. Wash., D.C.”

This work focuses on the fascinating foreign policy issues confronting America during the Kennedy Administration, from communism and the Cold War to the turmoil of Latin America. The author, Walt Whitman Rostow, was a Yale- and Oxford-educated economist who published extensively on both domestic and international economic issues, steadfastly defending capitalism. While Rostow had long been a favorite advisor of politicians, it was not until Kennedy came into power that he was granted an official advisory position. In 1961, Kennedy assigned him to the Policy Planning Council within the Department of State, where Rostow stayed right through the Johnson Administration, until he was given an ambassadorship to the Inter-American Committee on the Alliance for Progress in 1964. Rostow's term there ended when Johnson named him his special advisor on national security affairs, a position that placed him in right in the center of the Vietnam quagmire and nearly ruined his reputation. It was only by the publication of numerous books and his undeniable brilliance that Rostow managed to salvage a legacy as one of the most gifted economists of his time. The recipient of this copy, Anthony Hartley, was a well-known British columnist and essayist who wrote extensively about foreign affairs and economic issues.

Book fine, dust jacket extremely good with light soiling and a bit of wear to extremities. A near-fine inscribed presentation copy.