num_pages: 624
description: The award-winning author of Battle of Bretton Woods reveals the gripping history behind the Marshall Plantold with verve insight and particular resonance for today.In the wake of World War II with Britains empire collapsing and Stalin on the rise US officials under new secretary of state George C. Marshall set out with a plan 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 Steils thrilling account brings to life the seminal episodes marking the collapse of postwar US-Soviet relationsthe Prague coup the Berlin blockade and the division of Germany. In each case we see and understand like never before Stalins determination to crush the Marshall Plan and undermine American power in Europe.Given the current echoes of the Cold War as Putins Russia rattles the world order the tenuous balance of power and uncertain global order of the late 1940s is as relevant as ever. The Marshall Plan provides thorough context into understanding todays international landscape. Bringing to bear fascinating new material from American Russian German and other European archives Steils account will forever change how we see the birth of the Cold War and the Marshall Plan. A polished and masterly work of historical narrative this is an instant classic of Cold War literature.
language: English
title: The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War
publisher: Simon & Schuster