| 9781501102370 |
| 1501102370 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Summary
Summary
Winner of the 2019 New-York Historical Society Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History
Winner of the 2018 American Academy of Diplomacy Douglas Dillon Award
Shortlisted for the 2018 Duff Cooper Prize in Literary Nonfiction
Honorable Mention (runner-up) for the 2019 ASEEES Marshall D. Shulman Prize
The award-winning author of The Battle of Bretton Woods reveals the gripping history behind the Marshall Plan--told with verve, insight, and resonance for today.
In the wake of World War II, with Britain's empire collapsing and Stalin's on the rise, US officials under new secretary of state George C. Marshall set out to reconstruct western Europe as a bulwark against communist authoritarianism. Their massive, costly, and ambitious undertaking would confront Europeans and Americans alike with a vision at odds with their history and self-conceptions. In the process, they would drive the creation of NATO, the European Union, and a Western identity that continues to shape world events.
Focusing on the critical years 1947 to 1949, Benn Steil's thrilling account brings to life the seminal episodes marking the collapse of postwar US-Soviet relations--the Prague coup, the Berlin blockade, and the division of Germany. In each case, we see and understand like never before Stalin's determination to crush the Marshall Plan and undermine American power in Europe.
Given current echoes of the Cold War, as Putin's Russia rattles the world order, the tenuous balance of power and uncertain order of the late 1940s is as relevant as ever. The Marshall Plan provides critical context into understanding today's international landscape. Bringing to bear fascinating new material from American, Russian, German, and other European archives, Steil's account will forever change how we see the Marshall Plan and the birth of the Cold War. A polished and masterly work of historical narrative, this is an instant classic of Cold War literature.
Author Notes
Benn Steil is senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of The Marshall Plan : Dawn of the Cold War . His previous book, the prize-winning Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order , was called "a triumph of economic and diplomatic history" by the Financial Times , "a superb history" by The Wall Street Journal , and "the gold standard on its subject" by The New York Times . He lives in New York with his wife and two boys.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this accessible work of political and economic history, Steil (The Battle of Bretton Woods), director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, comprehensively details the conception, planning, implementation, impact, and contemporary reverberations of the Marshall Plan. Steil places the massive and unprecedented European reconstruction program at the center of the emerging Cold War, delineating how it intertwined with many of the early crises of the conflict. The book makes clear that the Marshall Plan was more than simply an aid program; it effectively constituted the creation of a new Western-oriented political, economic, and military architecture in Western Europe. The plan inevitably drew the ire of the U.S.S.R., which attempted to undermine the project. Steil emphasizes the roles and personalities of leading U.S. statesmen driving the effort to enact the Marshall Plan and devotes considerable space to describing the domestic U.S. political scene and the "legislative drama" behind the plan's political passage. The Marshall Plan achieved the goals of its creators, he concludes, and while it played a role in drawing the lines of the Cold War, the conflict itself was inevitable. Steil's fresh perspective on a well-tilled subject will be appreciated by specialists for its wide-ranging analysis and welcomed by general readers for its engrossing style and accessibility. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Steil, a director of international economics at the Council of Foreign Relations, begins his important examination of the Marshall Plan by providing a convincing and stark portrayal of conditions in continental Europe in 1947, two years after the end of WWII. The scale of physical destruction was immense, industrial and agricultural production remained dormant, and chances for rapid improvement seemed bleak. Local Communist parties, amply supported by the Soviets, seemed capable of seizing power in Italy, even France, as they had already done in Eastern Europe, and the American-Soviet wartime alliance was rupturing. So President Truman and Secretary of State Marshall decided to launch a massive and unprecedented foreign-aid program. First, a large PR campaign was launched to sell the program to the public and Congress. Then, inevitably, implementation of the plan was hindered by both bureaucratic inefficiency and ignorance of local conditions. Still, Steil asserts, the Marshall Plan was generally successful in achieving both its economic and political goals. This is an excellent recounting of an ambitious, huge program that helped rebuild and transform Europe.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2018 Booklist
Library Journal Review
The approaching end of World War II produced two conflicting concepts for Germany: pastoralization or revitalization as a member of the European community. The latter vision won out, largely as a defense against Communism, but that involved spending billions to reinvigorate a prostrate European economy. George Marshall, Dean Acheson, Harry Truman, and Arthur Vandenburg led the American side, while Russians Joseph Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov resisted. Meanwhile, leaders such as Britain's Winston Churchill and France's Charles de Gaulle sought American financing and protection from Soviet adventurism. The Marshall Plan solidified western Europe and was vital to the doctrine of containment throughout the Cold War, eventually leading to the common market and the transfer of several nations from Russian domination to the Western alliance. Steil (director of economics, Council on Foreign Relations; The Battle of Bretton Woods) skillfully and lengthily teases apart the complexity, expense, resistance, and nationalist intransigencies, as well as the important personal relationships among the principals. He finishes with a brief examination of the effects of the plan, and its contradictory lessons after 40 years. VERDICT Though dense reading, this work is certain to be an essential resource in academic libraries' collections on European history and -economics.-Edwin Burgess, Kansas City, KS © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
The Marshall Plan American, British, and Soviet leaders gather at Potsdam to discuss the future of Germany and postwar Europe, July 17, 1945. Foreground: British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden (left) and Prime Minister Clement Attlee (right). Background: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (center) and Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (left). Excerpted from The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.Table of Contents
| Foreword | p. xi |
| 1 Prologue | p. 1 |
| 2 Crisis | p. 15 |
| 3 Rupture | p. 55 |
| 4 Plan | p. 85 |
| 5 Trap | p. 117 |
| 6 Unity | p. 147 |
| 7 Persuasion | p. 179 |
| 8 Sausage | p. 219 |
| 9 Subversion | p. 235 |
| 10 Passage | p. 247 |
| 11 Showdown | p. 265 |
| 12 Division | p. 301 |
| 13 Success? | p. 339 |
| 14 Echoes | p. 377 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 405 |
| Cast of Characters | p. 407 |
| Appendix A Truman Doctrine Speech | p. 433 |
| Appendix B Marshall's Harvard Speech | p. 441 |
| Appendix C Data | p. 445 |
| Appendix D Maps | p. 455 |
| References | p. 461 |
| Notes | p. 503 |
| Illustration Credits | p. 579 |
| Index | p. 583 |
