The United States and European Reconstruction 1945-1960

An accessible introduction to a key aspect in economic history - the impact of American financial intervention in Europe after the Second World War. Did 'American dollars save the world' in 1947? Would Europe have revived spontaneously after 1945? If the Marshall Plan - in conjunction with NATO - created a coherent and prosperous western bloc, was this critical for the outcome of the Cold War? Did American policy in some way cause the substantial convergence since 1945 intransatlantic productivity, incomes and living styles, or was this convergence bound to happen anyway? These are important questions, to which this careful analysis provides some new and provocative answers. Covering all the main areas of immediate post-war US policy in Europe it includes useful material on the Bretton Woods debates, the American loan negotiation with Britain as well as the Marshall Plan.

John Killick is Lecturer in Economic History at Leeds University, England