Overview
Historians of the Cold War, argues William Hitchcock, have too often overlooked the part that European nations played in shaping the post-World War II international system. In particular, France, a country beset by economic difficulties and political instability in the aftermath of the war, has been given short shrift.
With this book, Hitchcock restores France to the narrative of Cold War history and illuminates its central role in the reconstruction of Europe. Drawing on a wide array of evidence from French, American, and British archives, he shows that France constructed a coherent national strategy for domestic and international recovery and pursued that strategy with tenacity and effectiveness in the first postwar decade. This once-occupied nation played a vital part in the occupation and administration of Germany, framed the key institutions of the "new" Europe, helped forge the NATO alliance, and engineered an astonishing economic recovery. In the process, France successfully contested American leadership in Europe and used its position as a key Cold War ally to extract concessions from Washington on a wide range of economic and security issues.
Editorials
From the Publisher
A valuable contribution to the University of North Carolina Press's 'New Cold War History' series.American Historical Review
A fine example of the new Cold War history that aims at transcending a purely US-Soviet framework.
Choice
[A] solidly researched study.
Charles S. Maier, Harvard University
Elegantly written and thoughtfully argued, Hitchcock's book will be indispensable for all future debates about postwar reconstruction policy in Europe.
Melvyn P. Leffler, University of Virginia
This is a first-rate study of French foreign policy during the early Cold War period.
Marc Trachtenberg, University of Pennsylvania