The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War

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Description

The award-winning writer of The Battle of Bretton Woods reveals the gripping history at the back of the Marshall Plan—told with verve, insight, and resonance for as of late.

In the wake of World War II, with Britain’s empire collapsing and Stalin’s on the upward push, US officials under new secretary of state George C. Marshall got down 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.

Specializing in 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 every case, we see and be aware 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 as of late’s international landscape. Bringing to bear fascinating new material from American, Russian, German, and other European archives, Steil’s account will eternally change how we see the Marshall Plan and the birth of the Cold War. A polished and masterly work of historical narrative, that is an instant classic of Cold War literature.

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