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The Most Noble Adventure
Greg Behrman
The Marshall Plan and the Time When America Helped Save Europe
Free Press
August 2007
On Sale: August 7, 2007
448 pages
ISBN: 0743282639
EAN: 9780743282635
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction | Historical
In this landmark, character-driven history, Greg Behrman
tells the story of the Marshall Plan, the unprecedented and
audacious policy through which America helped rebuild World
War II-ravaged Western Europe. With nuanced, vivid prose,
Behrman recreates the story of a unique American enterprise
that was at once strategic, altruistic and stunningly
effective, and of a time when America stood as a beacon of
generosity and moral leadership. When World War II ended in Europe, the continent lay in
tatters. Tens of millions of people had been killed. Ancient
cities had been demolished. The economic, financial and
commercial foundations of Europe were in shambles. Western
Europe's Communist parties -- feeding off people's want and
despair -- were flourishing as, to the east, Stalin's Soviet
Union emerged as the sole superpower on the continent. The Marshall Plan was a four-year, $13 billion (more than
$100 billion in today's dollars) plan to provide assistance
for Europe's economic recovery. More than an aid program, it
sought to modernize Western Europe's economies and launch
them on a path to prosperity and integration; to restore
Western Europe's faith in democracy and capitalism; to
enmesh the region firmly in a Western economic association
and eventually a military alliance. It was the linchpin of
America's strategy to meet the Soviet threat. It helped to
trigger the Cold War and, eventually, to win it. Through detailed and exhaustive research, Behrman brings
this vital and dramatic epoch to life and animates the
personalities that shaped it. The narrative follows the six
extraordinary American statesmen -- George Marshall, Will
Clayton, Arthur Vandenberg, Richard Bissell, Paul Hoffman
and W. Averell Harriman -- who devised and implemented the
Plan, as well as some of the century's most important
personalities -- Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, Joseph
McCarthy -- who are also central players in the drama told here. More than a humanitarian endeavor, the Marshall Plan was one
of the most effective foreign policies in all of American
history, in large part because, as Behrman writes, it was
born and executed in a time when American "foreign policy
was defined by its national interests and the very best of
ideals."
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