I decided to read this book because when I was younger I loved American History and this book is so well written that I am happy I did read it. This book deals mainly with The Marshall Plan that was put into effect during the time when Russia was trying to encroach on the British Empire which was collapsing and Stalin on the rise, and the new Secretary of state was George C. Marshall. Marshall was met with resistance by Europe and Americans as well as it was a costly undertaking.

The things he saw were the creation of NATO, the European Union, the Prague coup, the Berlin blockade, and the division of Germany. This was all during 1947 to 1949, and as I was reading this, I realized something important.

By going back in time and reading this, it is also good to know about it as we are now dealing with Putin and others that are as bad as the time during the 1940's history. This book is rich in facts and important consequences of what went on during the 40's, but most of all it made me realize how important it is to look into our past history and see the similarities of what we are going through now as a nation.

I gave this book 5 stars and am so glad I read this, and I am sure that this book is one of the most important books dealing with American and World history, and the author makes it so interesting to read, especially if one likes reading about our ever changing role in the world, and how we can learn from our past.

Really dry, really detailed and seriously in need of a timeline. This felt less about the Marshall Plan, which did have major importance for Europe in the aftermath of the world war, and more about the personalities of the leader and foreign secretary type person in the USSR, America and to some extent, Britain.

Excellent account. I quite enjoyed all of it. It was a great read and i am going to use a lot of what I read in my classroom.

I received a free Kindle copy of  The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War by Benn Steil courtesy of Net Galley and Simon and Shuster, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review to Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I am a an avid reader of American History and have not read anything that deals specifically with the Cold War. This is the first book by Benn Steil that I have read (Almost Perfect).

This is a well written an thoroughly researhed book. The author's writing style makes it an enjoyable read and holds the readers attention. The book covers the development and implentation of the Marshall Plan following World War II. It covers all of the more well known topics, the creation of East and West Germany and the Berlin Airlift, along with many of the behind the scenes events that led to the successful implementation of the plan. Steil does a very good job of explaining the characteristics of the main players on both sides amd the interactions between them. In the end, it all came down to differing philosophies on how best to develop the economy.

<p>I did it -- I read the beast! Five hundred plus pages detailing a specific time period and specific policy, in which I was disabused of the notion that The Marshall Plan was merely a large airdrop of food to Berlin and a front to <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=vf9ZJx8WkjQC&pg=PA624&lpg=PA624&dq=marshall+plan+funds+cia&source=bl&ots=72v4-thNhp&sig=sgTCrgQ4rrV7npvSW7QOza05o_8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj24d2vrcPXAhUa0IMKHeb6AfYQ6AEIUzAH#v=onepage&q=marshall%20plan%20funds%20cia&f=false">siphon off funds for the CIA</a>. I don't know why I had the food-drop impression, but before reading Steil's book, literally, the Marshall Plan, in my brain, was a huge crate of food suspended from a helicopter and dropped into a field somewhere on the outskirts of Berlin. I also learned <a href="https://www.google.ca/search?q=redound&oq=redound&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1158j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">redound</a> is a word, not a typo, and looked up <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autarky">autarky</a> every time it appeared because that definition could not stay in my brain (my brain is a closed-economy for new words ha ha ha economics joke). </p>

<p>And ... I read this big-ass book on that Marshall Plan and I don't know how much I really got out of it (although that economic joke in the previous paragraph wouldn't exist without it, so ...). Most of the book is a historic detailing of what went on to get the Marshall Plan up and running, which old white dude met with which other old white dude, which old white dude was like "No way!", which old white dude was like "Come on!", which old white dude was put in charge of running things, which old white dude had just pissed off Stalin, etc. History is okay and all, but it isn't, let's just say, thrill-a-minute exciting detailing what had to be added onto the bill in regard to subsidies to appease constituencies, especially since (a) it was all in the past and (b) I'm not American so the whole Congressional/House system is already kind of fuzzy in my mind (my sketchy understand of the Marshall Plan, pre reading this book, should probably give you a hint that American politics and policy are not my forte). It's all information, essentially archival rather than plot driven, and after a few hundred pages of this, I started to ask <i>Couldn't we have just gotten a timeline? Why present all this if there isn't going to be any sort of analysis?</i></p>

<p>Ah me, be careful what I wish for.</p>

<p>So then comes analysis. Did the Marshall Plan succeed? Well, Western Europe didn't collapse in 1949 and Soviet expansion didn't make it all the way to Ireland, so yes. Didn't need three hundred-odd pages to tell me that; I could have just dug up my map from my 1988 copy of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_in_Europe_Is_Carmen_Sandiego%3F">Where In Europe is Carmen Sandiego</a>. Would Europe have recovered as non-Communistly without the Marshall Plan? That analysis, which could have been an entire book itself, is sort of meandering, written like a last-minute history paper. The change in tone is staggering compared with the earlier sections, and the book falters. Then there's some talk about NATO in the 90s and beyond that doesn't tie in very well with either a historical recounting or analysis of the Marshall plan, and then it ends with a big, long, list of old white dudes who were important to the Marshall Plan and I was like <i>huh</i>. Okay. Good to know. </p>

<p>So I learned words, had my incorrect historical assumptions smacked up the side of the head, then forced myself to the end. A middling success for the book. Too bad I already used up my funny quota for the day because I feel like this should close with some sort of silly Marshall Plan joke (<i>Marshall my resources?</i>), but I'm spent. </p>

<p><A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/20629770/book/148096200">The Marshall Plan</a> by Benn Steil went on sale February 13, 2018.</p>

<p><small>I received a copy free from <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">Netgalley</a> in exchange for an honest review.</small></p>

The greatest act of George Washington’s presidency was his leaving of it.

This is how Benn Steil begins the prologue of his book on the beginnings of the cold war, and this amateur-historian/world-history-teacher/Washington-lover almost giggled with glee and a little bit of surprise. As it turns out, Washington provides the perfect lens through which to introduce such a topic. In addition to providing a standard for presidential term limits (followed unofficially until FDR) and giving prescient encouragement to restrain the power of factions (aka political parties — if only we had listened to him), Washington also advised the new nation to resist foreign entanglements, specifically in Europe. The United States followed this advice (with a few hiccups) until World War I and again in World War II, but the Marshall Plan marks the the moment when everything flipped. Never again would the United States pursue isolationism, but instead it would carry the responsibility, financially and militarily, of much of the world’s prosperity. Steil makes this clear throughout the book, saying:

"The British pullout (from Greece), Acheson understood, was the final act of the Pax Britannica — the global order that had defined the nineteenth century. Since Greece was the last barrier to Soviet domination of the Aegean and the Adriatic, the responsibility was now on Washington to prop it up."

It is an important point to make, one that frames a grand understanding of both the Marshall Plan and the general story of world history after World War II, and I am extremely grateful that Steil is the one to tell it.

The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War is an examination of America’s foreign relations beginning just before the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan speeches in 1947 and continuing through the creation of NATO and the end of the Berlin blockade in 1949. Yet the view in which Steil chooses to frame it is much larger, from Washington’s farewell address to roughly present day (the final chapter covers post-Berlin-wall relations between the U.S. and Russia). Through this lens, the post-World-War-II world becomes so much clearer historically.

As much as I love history, I did not see myself enjoying a book that deals mostly with diplomacy and most of the remainder on macroeconomics (both of which I have little to no experience studying). However, the depth of research and the style of the author made the subject matter highly available and engaging. Steil goes behind the scenes of both American and Soviet policy, using sources as diverse as the characters he unveils, and provides the reader with a depth of understanding of the forces at work in every decision. Part of this is due to the characters themselves, as each is drawn with detail from General Marshall, Dean Acheson and General Lucius Clay, to Stalin and Molotov, to the British foreign minister Bevin and his inability to pronounce the name of his French counterpart Bidault.

Steil is also graced with a writing ability that is often lacking in historical tomes of this caliber, and that makes The Marshall Plan a joy to read. One excerpt describing the State Department’s George Kennan both exemplifies this writing style and could be applied to Steil himself:
"A lesser writer might never have budged his bureaucracy from its settle plans and benchmarks, but Kennan had an ability to persuade readers that they were glimpsing hidden truths — truths that did not diminish them by highlighting errors in their thinking, but truths that the writer himself experiences in the telling, with his readers, giving them the intellectual cover to adapt their views."
Steil does exactly this throughout, using his resources and scholarly wit to impel the reader to consider what he is considering himself. That is part of the reason why his book was so enjoyable and had such a profound effect on me, providing scaffolding on which I can hang a lot of historical connections from the Cold War era. Since this era is so interesting to me and I spend quite a bit of time reading about it, that’s significant.

No matter your interests, as long as those interests include the history of the United States or of the world, you will find inroads to The Marshall Plan. I have already recommended it to a friend that has a background in Russian history, one that is much more interested in macroeconomics than I am, and one who reads general history books but might not have touched on the Marshall Plan era. This is the first truly great book I have read this year, and it is worth sharing. The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War releases in bookstores everywhere on February 13, or you can pre-order it on Amazon today.

I received this book as an eARC courtesy of Simon & Schuster and NetGalley, but my opinions are my own.

President George Washington bid his countrymen to steer clear of foreign entanglements, especially with Europe, whose interests were remote from the United States. After World War II, President Harry Truman took seriously Washington’s warning against foreign alliances, but he was convinced the realities of the late 1940s dictated the necessity of involvement.
The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War is over 600 pages, packed with the heroes and villains of the late 1940s. The diplomacy and strategy involved is incredible.
Mistakes were made during the war and immediately after in how to deal with Stalin, but in the end, the Soviets were stopped in their tracks.
Because The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War is so full of information, I found it to be slow reading, but it is a fascinating story well-worth your time.
I received a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Marshall Plan by Benn Steil

The Marshall Plan is an extremely well documented and extensively researched examination of how the plan changed the world in the late 1940’s, 50’s and even today. After World War II our European allies were on the verge of economic collapse. Those allies were ripe for Russian takeover but with great forethought, the Marshall Plan thwarted Russian dreams by helping Europe rebuild economically, reinforcing the strong bond between our allies and the US.
As stated earlier, the book is extensively researched. If you are looking for an extremely comprehensive account of the Marshall Plan, this will be a fascinating read. It can, however, seem overly documented if you are looking for a lighter read.

Steil uses his skills explaining economic policy (the Bretton Woods book was excellent) and a wave of newly available documents from eastern Europe to position the Marshall plan as early Cold War policy. At 400 pages, the details are rich and illustrative, and allow for full discussion of things like the initial wording of the proposal (casting the plan as being against poverty, chaos and despair rather than anti-communism, allowing the US to wag a finger at anyone who was FOR poverty, chaos and despair). It is also useful to be reminded of Masaryk's American connections at the heart of power and Kennan's role at NDU in drafting the initial idea.