The Battle of Bretton Woods: How John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White Shaped the Future of International Finance and Global Governance

Mark Higgins: This is a great book for economics buffs, but might be a bit inaccessible for people outside of the profession. The Bretton woods agreement was the foundation upon which the modern US empire was built. The author does a great job explaining the personalities and the thought process from an American perspective. Is an exceptional work, but probably is a bit difficult to follow for readers who do not have a solid base of knowledge in economics.

United States on Aug 14, 2022

Lettore: La sensazione di stantìo, di istituzione fossile che dà oggi il Fondo Monetario Internazionale risulta chiaramente motivata dalla lettura dei due libri di Benn Steil.
"La battaglia di Bretton Woods" presenta il tentativo di implementare, attraverso l'FMI, l'utopia di Roosevelt per il secondo dopoguerra da parte dei suoi mediocri e talvolta infedeli collaboratori.
"Il piano Marshall" illustra il vivificante, spietato realismo con il quale i vigorosi intellettuali di cui Truman seppe circondarsi sovvertirono la mediocre utopia di Roosevelt.

Italy on Mar 30, 2021

John Walker: As the Allies advanced toward victory against the Axis powers on all fronts in 1944, in Allied capitals thoughts increasingly turned to the postwar world and the institutions which would define it. Plans were already underway to expand the “United Nations” (at the time used as a synonym for the Allied powers) into a postwar collective security organisation which would culminate in the April 1945 conference to draft the charter of that regrettable institution. Equally clamant was the need to define monetary mechanisms which would facilitate free trade.

The classical gold standard, which was not designed but evolved organically in the 19th century as international trade burgeoned, had been destroyed by World War I. Attempts by some countries to reestablish the gold standard after the end of the war led to economic dislocation (particularly in Great Britain), currency wars (competitive devaluations in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage in international trade), and trade wars (erecting tariff or other barriers to trade to protect domestic or imperial markets against foreign competition).

World War II left all of the major industrial nations with the sole...

United States on Aug 08, 2019

Stephen Cryan: This book goes into the detail of the planning of the economic system for the post WW2 world culminating with the signing of the agreements at Bretton Woods in 1944. Interesting in its detail it is un forgiving in its critique of the US foe defending nothing but its interests.. It illustrates how weak Great Britain was and to what extent at the mercy of the US negotiators. There was no special treatment and so the US got its pound of flesh and much more.

The susequent Marshall Plan was an inherent admission that the US had gone too far and needed to rebalance the economic forces even in its own interests. I am looking forward to reading Ben Steil's book of the Marshall Plan which should enlighten the US change of heart.

Spain on Nov 29, 2018

Etienne RP: Bretton Woods was the most important international gathering since the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. I read this book looking for clues on how to host international conferences: how to accommodate delegates, maintain protocol, overcome obstacles, build consensus, and reach a satisfying outcome. I was disappointed on that count. The Battle of Bretton Woods doesn’t focus on the Bretton Woods conference per se. It is a work of intellectual history built around the two characters of John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White. It describes the way these two Treasury officials negotiated the main financial issues facing the United States and the United Kingdom during World War II and immediately after: the Lend-Lease Act of 1941 granting the British access to war finance and equipment; the blueprints for a postwar monetary order that began circulating in 1942 and ultimately culminated in the adoption of the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development at Bretton Woods; the signing of the $4.4 billion Anglo-American Financial Agreement in December 1945; and the inaugural meeting of the IMF board of governors in...

United States on Sep 10, 2015

Serghiou Const: The book is authoritatively written, impeccably documented while its author is a charismatic story teller.

The author describes the epic saga of the creation of the postwar economic order at Bretton Woods in July 1944.

The main protagonists were the American White, indefatigable and possessing prowess against the brilliant English economist Keynes.

But what decided the issue was not brilliance but power. An ascendant superpower, the United States used its economic leverage over an insolvent allied imperial power, Great Britain, to set the terms by which the latter would cede its dwindling dominion over the rules and norms of foreign trade and finance. Britain cooperated because the overriding aim for survival seemed to dictate the course.

The twin aims of the Bretton Woods accords were the promotion of free multilateral trade and exchange rate stability through the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. These aims were intended to counter the bitter experience of the prewar era of competitive currency devaluations and trade protectionism. The dollar became the global reserve currency and the sole currency convertible to...

United Kingdom on Apr 08, 2015

Uwe Burkheiser: Benn Steil’s vivid and masterly account of the last formal attempt to create a rule based international monetary system (the Bretton-Woods-System) for the post WWII world is not only informative and entertaining but also sheds ample light on the non-economic issues surrounding the power brokers, their interests, and personalities. Beyond that, the book demonstrates (once again) why the Bretton-Woods-System was short lived and had to fail (in 1971). When making full convertibility the stringent criteria for the duration of the Bretton-Woods-System it lasted only 10 years - from 1961 to 1971. Without the gradual deterioration of the US (Truman) and UDSSR (Stalin) relationship after WWII which triggered the birth of the Marshall Plan (1947) for the economic rehabilitation of Europe, the Bretton-Woods-System would probably have faltered even earlier.

Among the many books and scientific articles about the Bretton-Woods-System Steil’s account stands out as a very readable and excellently researched summary of the actual process of the long drawn out negotiations between the two protagonists (and their masters) of this “Battle” – Harry Dexter White (1892-1948) and John...

Germany on Jan 31, 2014

Rob Julian: Do you ever get the feeling that great historical events rarely happened how you initially presumed that they did? This book certainly exploded a few fundamental preconceptions I had about Bretton Woods, and Keynes' role in it. A must read for all interested in international economics and currency issues.

The Bretton Woods conference during the end of WWII is frequently referenced by progressive economists in reverential tones, and often held up as a useful example to be followed of forward looking international economic cooperation. The conference supposedly marks the point when the dark days of selfish 1930s national competitive deflation policies and destructive national trade balancing policies were overcome, and the enlightened path towards the international economic common good was set out. But, like good books should, the author Benn Steil challenges some of these lazy generalisations:

* While Keynes undoubtedly influenced the overarching economic theory regarding the benefits of international cooperation to boost and stabilise aggregate demand, much of the outcome of BW, especially the future centrality of the American dollar, hinges on the determined power...

United Kingdom on Apr 13, 2013