Winning the Peace: The Marshall Plan and America's Coming of Age as a Superpower

by Nicolaus Mills

Overview

Politicians of every stripe frequently invoke the Marshall Plan in support of programs aimed at using American wealth to extend the nation's power and influence, solve intractable third-world economic problems, and combat world hunger and disease. Do any of these impassioned advocates understand why the Marshall Plan succeeded where so many subsequent aid plans have not? Historian Nicolaus Mills explores the Marshall Plan in all its dimensions to provide valuable lessons from the past about what America can and cannot do as a superpower.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470097557
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	01/01/2008
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.52(w) x 9.22(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

NICOLAUS MILLS is a professor of American Studies at Sarah Lawrence College, an editorial board member of Dissent, and a contributor to the American Prospect, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.

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Table of Contents

Preface.

Introduction: Shared Expectations.

1.Lifeline.

2. Roosevelt's General.

3. The Organizer of Victory.

4. Annus Horrendus.

5. The Road to June 5.

6. America in Paris.

7. "As Though I Was Running for the Senate or the Presidency".

8. On the Campaign Trail.

9. Launching the Heroic Adventure.

10. Exorcising History.

Epilogue: The Nobel Peace Prize.

Acknowledgments.

Notes.

Index.

Editorial Reviews

Tracing the history and intended goals of the Marshall Plan (1947)—named for its primary creator, Secretary of State George C. Marshall—Mills passionately argues that it was a successful nation-building tool that offers many lessons for the United States today. According to Mills (American studies, Sarah Lawrence Coll.), Marshall emphasized that American aid after World War II should not be used against nations but against ""forces that deprived people of their dignity."" His goal was to help revive the economies of Europe, creating stable political and social units that would facilitate the existence of free institutions. In this, Mills declares the Marshall Plan a success in that it supplied Europe with ""a crucial margin of aid"" that enabled it to recover without slashing needed welfare programs or reducing wages. In other words, the Marshall Plan was Europe's New Deal, providing the foundation for a stable Europe that would include Germany in its economic center. Well written, engaging, and likely to be considered controversial owing to its praise of the plan, Mill's book should promote discussion, especially in light of current events. Recommended for academic and larger public library collections.
—Patti C. McCall, AMRI, Albany, NY (Library Journal, February 15, 2008)

During the spring of 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall promulgated what would come to be known as the Marshall Plan: a proposal to spend up to $20 billion to restore the infrastructure and economies of Europe, then still foundering in recession and poverty after the ravages of WWII. As Mills, American studies professor at Sarah Lawrence, shows in this elegant study, the plan not only offered relief but brought about a degree of European unity by forcing countries to work in concert to mend their fractured continent. The U.S. mostly refrained from influencing specific solutions, an approach that Mills argues the present administration should think about adopting today. The plan worked to the advantage of the United States as much as it worked to the advantage of noncommunist Europe: much of the economic aid supplied was to be used to purchase American merchandise, and legislation required that this merchandise travel on U.S. merchant vessels. Six years after Marshall’s first proposal, the U.S. had invested some $13 billion, and virtually all of Western Europe stood restored. This overview covers a complex subject straightforwardly and well. (Feb.) (Publishers Weekly, November 26, 2007)

Praise for Winning the Peace“Nicolaus Mills’s fascinating book at once challenges the conventional wisdom about the success of the Marshall Plan and argues that the plan succeeded anyway. I can’t imagine a more timely reflection on how the United States once reinforced democracy abroad without losing the world’s respect—and its own political soul.” —Sean Wilentz, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Princeton University and author of The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln  

“By illuminating the past, Nicolaus Mills’s eloquent history of the Marshall Plan also informs the present. Marshall’s genius was to understand that the power of America’s example is as important as the example of its power.  As we grapple with new global challenges—from radical fundamentalists to the spread of lethal weapons and from economic dislocation to environmental degradation—Mills’s study of Marshall reminds us how urgent it is that we recapture the totality of America’s strength.”  —Senator Joseph Biden, Chairman, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee

“Nicolaus Mills has a double purpose in this splendid book. First, he gives us a lively and accessible account of the conception and implementation of the Marshall Plan and a probing analysis of its effectiveness.That is his historical project; he also has a political project of great importance—to remind us of what America can do in the world when its leaders are committed to speak honestly to their own people, to consult with allies abroad (and listen to what they say), and to adapt policy to the circumstances of the ‘real world.’” —Michael Walzer, author of Just and Unjust Wars

“In Winning the Peace, Nicolaus Mills has not only given the reader a clear account of the Marshall Plan—and why it worked—but also a moving and timely reminder of just what a great and selfless American George C. Marshall was.  It is an important and very readable work of history.” —Michael Korda, author of Ulysses S. Grant and Ike

“Of all the ambitious undertakings in American foreign policy, the Marshall Plan particularly merits a fresh look, with an eye both to its historical significance and to its lessons for today’s world—and tomorrow’s U.S. leaders.  Nicolaus Mills has given the plan and the man for whom it is named just that. He has done so with admirable clarity, concision, and persuasiveness.” —Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution and author of The Great Experiment

“Popularly perceived by Americans, the ‘Marshall Plan’ was simply a welfare program. In reality, it was a nation-building effort aimed at nothing less than the reorganization of European capitalism. Nick Mills’s masterful synthesis has captured, in an amazingly brief and accessible treatment, the extreme complexity of the interaction of the seventeen sovereign and competitive nations formally linked by the European Recovery Program.” —Dr. Larry I. Bland, Senior Director, George C. Marshall Foundation

From the Publisher

During the spring of 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall promulgated what would come to be known as the Marshall Plan: a proposal to spend up to $20 billion to restore the infrastructure and economies of Europe, then still foundering in recession and poverty after the ravages of WWII. As Mills, American studies professor at Sarah Lawrence, shows in this elegant study, the plan not only offered relief but brought about a degree of European unity by forcing countries to work in concert to mend their fractured continent. The U.S. mostly refrained from influencing specific solutions, an approach that Mills argues the present administration should think about adopting today. The plan worked to the advantage of the United States as much as it worked to the advantage of noncommunist Europe: much of the economic aid supplied was to be used to purchase American merchandise, and legislation required that this merchandise travel on U.S. merchant vessels. Six years after Marshall's first proposal, the U.S. had invested some $13 billion, and virtually all of Western Europe stood restored. This overview covers a complex subject straightforwardly and well. (Feb.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

Tracing the history and intended goals of the Marshall Plan (1947)-named for its primary creator, Secretary of State George C. Marshall-Mills passionately argues that it was a successful nation-building tool that offers many lessons for the United States today. According to Mills (American studies, Sarah Lawrence Coll.), Marshall emphasized that American aid after World War II should not be used against nations but against "forces that deprived people of their dignity." His goal was to help revive the economies of Europe, creating stable political and social units that would facilitate the existence of free institutions. In this, Mills declares the Marshall Plan a success in that it supplied Europe with "a crucial margin of aid" that enabled it to recover without slashing needed welfare programs or reducing wages. In other words, the Marshall Plan was Europe's New Deal, providing the foundation for a stable Europe that would include Germany in its economic center. Well written, engaging, and likely to be considered controversial owing to its praise of the plan, Mill's book should promote discussion, especially in light of current events. Recommended for academic and larger public library collections.
—Patti C. McCall

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