Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis

John McCloy was born and raised in Philadelphia. His father died when he was six years of age and he was raised by his mother who had ambitions for him. He secured summer jobs with many of his mother's wealthy clients. Having attended school at Maplewood and The Peddie School in New Jersey, McCloy went on to Amherst. He tutored the children of the wealthy during summers. This was his mother's way of ensuring that he made the right social contacts. He left Harvard Law School to enlist in the Army.

George Kennan was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where his father practiced tax law. He attended St. Johns Military Academy near Milwaukee and then Princeton. George spent a year in Europe with Constantine Messolonghitis.

Before World War I, the East Coast schools were very elite. The most elite club at Yale, Skull...