The Most Noble Adventure: The Marshall Plan and How America Helped Rebuild Europe - Tapa blanda

"The Marshall Plan was the most creative and inspired act in modern American foreign policy. It preserved the possibility of freedom and showed the potential for great leadership. There's so much we can learn from the boldness and creativity of Marshall, Acheson and their coterie. Greg Behrman has captured all of this masterfully. In a beautifully researched and written narrative, he has produced a compelling tale that should be an inspiration as we face our new global challenges."

-- Walter Isaacson, coauthor of The Wise Men and author of Einstein

Every time our nation faces a crisis, someone calls for a new Marshall Plan. But few know the real story of the original: thrilling, inspirational and relevant to the challenges of today. No one has ever told it better than Greg Behrman, who draws modern lessons while making this vital period come alive once again."

-- Ambassador Richard Holbrooke

"The Marshall Plan is an often-invoked but not well-understood icon of American politics. Greg Behrman turns it into a living, vivid -- and moving -- story. He captures the dangers and drama of the years after World War II. He shows how personalities -- whom afterwards history would rightly judge statesmen -- combined vision and pragmatism with determination, money and self-help to prevent Europe from falling into the arms of Josef Stalin, while laying the basis for a united Europe."

-- Daniel Yergin, author of The Prize and Shattered Peace

"Behrman's comprehensively researched and well-written history of the Marshall Plan -- that, as much as the Allied victory, saved Europe as we know it -- promises to be a definitive work."

-- Dr. Henry Kissinger

"A commanding and measured account of one of the most visionary programs in United States history. If you wish to know America at its best, what America can be, read this book."

-- Bob Kerrey, president of The New School and former senator

"As historian Greg Behrman makes abundantly clear in The Most Noble Adventure, the Marshall Plan has become code language for governmental caring. By reminding us of President Truman's great accomplishment in vivid detail, Behrman has rendered history a signal service. A smart, balanced and timely study."

-- Douglas Brinkley, author of The Great Deluge

"There is much for our times to learn from the Marshall Plan -- about what common purpose can achieve and how cooperation among nations, even in dangerous times and midst high tension, can bring such great common benefit."

-- Daniel Yergin, author of The Prize

Traces America's four-year diplomatic efforts to help rebuild post-World War II Europe, an endeavor that involved a thirteen-billion-dollar plan and was heavily influenced by political factors. By the author of The Invisible People. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.