As Benn Steil details in his brilliant book The Marshall Plan, the Soviets had shown ever-greater intransigence throughout 1946 and 1947 in regard to all proposals for the economic rebuilding of Europe and the political reconstitution of the defeated Germany … Mr. Steil’s is by far the best study yet, because it is so wise and so balanced in its judgments, including, for example, its candid discussion on how much the plan truly boosted the economies of the many recipients … The book has an invaluable ‘Cast of Characters,’ a daunting bibliography and a huge 74 pages of notes. It’s quite a tribute it all reads so well.

Benn Steil’s new book, The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War is an important and welcome analysis of why and how the US became a global superpower and the difference it made to the world we inhabit … Steil makes a compelling case that the integration of Western Europe that we now take for granted really began with the Marshall Plan … This is a gripping, complex, and critically important story that is told with clarity and precision. The book is superbly documented and reflects an extraordinary level of research.

Steil tells the story of not just the development of the Marshall Plan but also the division of Germany, the founding of NATO and, as the subtitle of his book indicates, the dawn of the Cold War. Steil’s account is the most detailed yet of the lengthy, constantly evolving initiative … Steil is at his best when describing the myriad agencies and policies that oversaw and executed the Marshall Plan as it distributed more than $13 billion in aid to 17 countries from 1948 to 1952. He writes elegantly on economics, explaining complicated mechanisms used to fuel the Western European recovery … Steil’s conclusion is less convincing. He ends the book with a distracting discussion of the post-Cold War period and a critique of U.S.-supported NATO expansion to countries of the former Soviet bloc and the resulting alienation of Russia.

The Marshall Plan is elegant in style and impressive in insights. Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, has an enviable gift for presenting complex economic and geopolitical issues in crisp, readable prose … He contends that, although the Americans held the purse strings and emphasised the need for western European economic integration, they did not dictate the specific paths to recovery charted in Britain, France and Italy … The 1948 communist coup in Czechoslovakia and the Soviet blockade of Berlin, followed by Nato’s creation, indicate that the Marshall Plan came with grave, perhaps unavoidable costs.

...compelling, authoritative and lucid … Steil’s superb narrative combines diplomatic, economic and political history with descriptions of such episodes as the Berlin Airlift, along with vivid portraits of the diverse primary personalities, who were often at odds with each other … The Marshall Plan was followed by the founding of NATO and the European Union, important legacies that continue today. This dramatic and engaging account of one of the most complex but enduring achievements of American foreign policy deserves a wide readership.

[Steils's] book — which features extensive endnotes, appendices, and statistics — offers a detailed history and analysis of the persons and events that shaped the Marshall Plan. While the topic is dramatic, the details sometimes trip over themselves. The result is an important, scholarly text that may pose a challenge to lay readers. Still, the author skillfully presents the gestation of the multifaceted stimulus package that threw down the gauntlet to the Communists.

Steil, author of the acclaimed The Battle of Bretton Woods, has given us a thoroughly researched and well-written account of the crucial years of 1947-49 and formation of the Marshall Plan … Most books on economic politics may be written for economists and other specialists. The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War, however, will appeal to history buffs in general and those seeking a definitive record of America’s first diplomatic confrontation with Soviet Russia in particular.

The Marshall Plan was successful, though, as Steil, the senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, demonstrates, American intervention in postwar Europe did not quite work out as expected. While the Marshall Plan helped restart Europe’s economy, it did not provide a glide path for the United States to avoid a long-term security entanglement ... Steil’s focus on the debate over the future of Europe’s economy provides a fresh perspective on the coming Cold War. Although he sidesteps the arguably sterile question of which national policymaker bears the greatest blame for starting the Cold War, he shows both that Truman and Marshall understood that the plan would challenge the Soviet approach to postwar Europe and that Stalin would never tolerate a powerful German economy unless the Soviet Union were the primary beneficiary ... Steil has written an ambitious, deeply researched narrative that not only delineates the interlocking gears of international politics and economics in early postwar Europe but also introduces a large cast of statesmen, spies and economists that perhaps only Dickens could have corralled with ease. Slow going at first, the book builds intellectual excitement as the characters act and react to one another.

A fresh perspective on the Marshall Plan … Political history is often a tough slog, but Steil writes a vivid, opinionated narrative full of colorful characters, dramatic scenarios, villains, and genuine heroes, and the good guys won. It will be the definitive account for years to come.

The book makes clear that the Marshall Plan was more than simply an aid program; it effectively constituted the creation of a new Western-oriented political, economic, and military architecture in Western Europe … Steil’s fresh perspective on a well-tilled subject will be appreciated by specialists for its wide-ranging analysis and welcomed by general readers for its engrossing style and accessibility.