The Most Noble Adventure: The Marshall Plan and the Time When America Helped Save Europe

The plan conceived by Secretary of State George Marshall to aid the recovery of a ravaged post-WWII Europe was perhaps the most generous act in American history and the world’s most successful program of international cooperation and visionary statesmanship. Behrman’s comprehensive study of the Marshall Plan could not arrive at a better time, when issues of nation building, postwar reconstruction and American obligations to friend and foe are the stuff of public debate. Behrman (The Invisible People ) provides clarity, color and one of the greatest casts of characters in America’s history, including Harry Truman, Dean Acheson and Marshall. Readers will also learn of unjustly overlooked men such as Will Clayton, Paul Hoffman and Arthur Vandenberg on the American side and of the statesmanship of Ernest Bevin, Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet and Stafford Cripps on the European. While lasting a mere four years, the $13-billion Marshall Plan rescued Europe from economic catastrophe and possible Communist domination while setting the stage for the continent’s integration today. Even if the work lacks a strong enough authorial voice and distinctive style, it’s unlikely Behrman’s narrative force could be surpassed or that the discovery of further archives would materially alter the author’s gripping tale. 16 pages of photos. (Aug.)