Saving a Continent The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan eBook Charles L Mee Jr
Download As PDF : Saving a Continent The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan eBook Charles L Mee Jr 
The imperial powers of the nineteenth century, having weakened one another in World War I, destroyed themselves in World War II. In the aftermath of the war, Europe was in shambles. Nearly all of France, Germany, Italy, and Poland had been devastated. Bridges and roads were gone. Rivers and canals were clogged with sunken ships and fallen bridges. Unexploded bombs and shells littered fields.
Postwar inflation whipsawed the survivors cigarettes, coffee, and chocolate were better currencies than Deutsche marks. Prices rose in Italy to thirty-five times their prewar level. Before the year was over, disastrous harvests across the continent would leave Europeans hungry, and, in some places, even starving.
Only two great powers remained strong enough to consider taking over, or materially influencing, Europe - the United States and the Soviet Union. United States Secretary of State George C. Marshall had a plan. Here's the story of that plan and the fascinating man who put it together.
Saving a Continent The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan eBook Charles L Mee Jr
Better known as a playwright than as a historian, Charles L. Mee Jr specializes in succinct, comprehensible summations of complex events, civilisations, and people. He is a summarizer more than a historian, but as such he provides a useful service to those wanting more than the "Cliff Notes on Mayan Civilisation" or "Rembrandt for Dummies" but who are not interested in reading a dozen in-depth studies. Nonetheless, when a writer flubs simple facts, however insignificant, it throws the validity of the entire work into question. In this history of the Marshall Plan he describes the cathedrals within the Kremlin walls as "Greek Orthodox" when even a very, very casual student of Russian history knows they are Russian Orthodox. Just a few pages later he describes Churchill in 1947 as Truman's "old friend;" as the two men never met before 1945 this is exaggeration at best. Neither fact or statement is in itself significant, but the mistakes (and, several others that are equally insignificant but annoying such a confusing the word "cache'" for "cachet") make a reader doubt other statements and "facts" given in the book, which is a shame because the book is readable and provides a good introductory overview of the subject. There are a few larger mistakes, such as Mee's astonishing assertion that the Communist governement of Czechoslovakia was "indisputably" freely voted into office, but most of the mistakes are small and serve as a reminder of how rare good editors have become.Product details
|
Tags : Saving a Continent: The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan - Kindle edition by Charles L. Mee Jr.. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Saving a Continent: The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan.,ebook,Charles L. Mee Jr.,Saving a Continent: The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan,New Word City, Inc.,History Europe Western,History Military World War II
People also read other books :
- The Search For My Inner "I" Joseph W Macy 9781483679297 Books
- Perfectly Incorrect Why The Common Core Is Psychologically And Cognitively Unsound eBook Terry Marselle
- The Quadity Jacob I Pfeiffer 9780692818305 Books
- The Quadity Jacob I Pfeiffer 9780692818305 Books
- Perfectly Incorrect Why The Common Core Is Psychologically And Cognitively Unsound eBook Terry Marselle
Saving a Continent The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan eBook Charles L Mee Jr Reviews
I went into this book thinking it would be focused on the decimation of Europe and the privations its citizens were dealing with in the aftermath of World War II and how the US responded to that need. That was there, but the focus was more on the personalities involved in what came to be the start of the Cold War and the actual formation of the Marshall Plan. Surprisingly, I was thoroughly interested. I have read many books on World War II but was never very interested in the Cold War. This book changed that. It was fascinating to see how everything played out in the aftermath of the war and how thanks to the largess of the United States half of Europe prospered while the other half under Soviet rule never really recovered.
The book also delves into the political and petty squabbles between the personalities and the different countries involved, and how instead of being grateful with what they were getting there were many who griped and complained and whose pride almost cost them this unprecedented help.
One of the most interesting things I took from this novel was the great time and effort the politicians in Washington put into making sure the American public saw the money given to Europe as, not simply charity, but as a means to contain communism. Yet, in the end, the majority of American's were okay with simply giving the money as charity. Certainly made me stop and think and as an American feel a sense of pride in my people.
The first set of chapters covers the initial realization-of-need for the Marshall Plan. The majority of the chapters talk about the political wrangling to get the plan acceptable to the US State department (controlled by the Democrats), to the US Congress (controlled by the Republicans) and to the Western European countries themselves. Only the last chapter talked a bit about the actual execution of the Marshall plan.
There were several interesting tidbits. For example, the US said it was extending the offer of aid to all European countries who wished to participate; but let it be known to key European diplomats that planning procedures should be proposed such that Russia would refuse to participate. As a result, the Marshall Plan caused the “Iron Curtain” to fall over Eastern Europe sooner than it otherwise would have. As another example, France wanted to dismantle German factories and move them to France (France was quite reluctant to see German factories rebuilt in Germany). But the US position was to get Europe back on its feet as fast as possible – and that meant not moving factories around.
Regardless, each European country had its own national outlook, and so it took time and compromise to develop a single all-Europe plan instead of a set of individual national plans. Such planning is difficult (and, at times, frustrating). And so a book about such planning, though of historical interest, is something that can rarely be made into an interesting book.
This is a thoroughly researched and well written description of the Marshall Plan and its effect on Europe. It insight fully describes the economic conditions that existed throughout Europe in the years immediately following WWII; thereby setting the stage for the need of such a plan. The book then spends several chapters describing the European reaction to the Plan and the methods whereby the Americans shaped the European response. It goes on to describe how the Truman administration convinced and persuaded the Congress and the American people to pass the legislation and support the spending.
The book goes on to describe the Plan in action and shows how and why it saved the European continent from a potential Communist takeover.
I found this book extremely interesting, probably because I worked in Wash.DC for the ECA which was the official name of the
department which administered the Marshall Plan. My boss was the Deputy to Paul Hoffman, the man chosen to head the
ECA (Economic Cooperation Administration. The complex preliminary agreements, the egos involved and the difficult logistics
made it a challenge to get the Plan off the ground. Mr. Mee explains a lot. A very readable book/.
Better known as a playwright than as a historian, Charles L. Mee Jr specializes in succinct, comprehensible summations of complex events, civilisations, and people. He is a summarizer more than a historian, but as such he provides a useful service to those wanting more than the "Cliff Notes on Mayan Civilisation" or "Rembrandt for Dummies" but who are not interested in reading a dozen in-depth studies. Nonetheless, when a writer flubs simple facts, however insignificant, it throws the validity of the entire work into question. In this history of the Marshall Plan he describes the cathedrals within the Kremlin walls as "Greek Orthodox" when even a very, very casual student of Russian history knows they are Russian Orthodox. Just a few pages later he describes Churchill in 1947 as Truman's "old friend;" as the two men never met before 1945 this is exaggeration at best. Neither fact or statement is in itself significant, but the mistakes (and, several others that are equally insignificant but annoying such a confusing the word "cache'" for "cachet") make a reader doubt other statements and "facts" given in the book, which is a shame because the book is readable and provides a good introductory overview of the subject. There are a few larger mistakes, such as Mee's astonishing assertion that the Communist governement of Czechoslovakia was "indisputably" freely voted into office, but most of the mistakes are small and serve as a reminder of how rare good editors have become.
0 Response to "≫ [PDF] Gratis Saving a Continent The Untold Story of the Marshall Plan eBook Charles L Mee Jr"
Post a Comment