Our Finest Hour: Will Clayton, the Marshall Plan, and the Triumph of Democracy

by Gregory A. Fossedal, Paul Nitze (Foreword by)

Overview

William L. Clayton was "the principal architect of American post-war foreign economic policy" (Newsweek), yet his seminal contributions to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the Marshall Plan, and the Truman Doctrine have been largely ignored over the past four decades. This gap in the story of free-world cooperation is filled by Gregory Fossedal's vivid biography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780817992033
Publisher:	Hoover Institution Press
Publication date:	11/19/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	350
File size:	895 KB

About the Author

Gregory A. Fossedal was a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of the widely praised book The Democratic Imperative. He is a former editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal and has also written for the New York TImes, the New Republic, Commentary, Reader's Digest, and the American Spectator.

Editorial Reviews

Clayton rose Horatio Alger-style from an eighth-grade education to owning the world's largest cotton brokerage firm. He was a Southern Democrat with strong views on free trade, free enterprise, and democracy. Drawn into government service to aid in wartime procurement, he remained to play critical roles in shaping the Bretton Woods Agreement, the Marshall Plan, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1947. Fossedal, a former Hoover Institution fellow, offers anecdotal evidence that Truman once asked Clayton to be Secretary of State. Fair and well documented but rather pedestrian in tone, this is the first full-length study of Clayton. Larger collections will want it.-- Nancy C. Cridland, Indiana Univ. Libs., Bloomington

Library Journal

Fossedal's biography illuminates businessman-statesman Clayton's (1880-1966) contributions to the development of American postwar foreign policy, including his central role in designing the Marshall Plan, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the Truman Doctrine. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"This is a timely, well-told story of one man's extraordinarily successful effort to shape a global, peacefully competitive economic community."
- Senator Bill Bradley

"An important addition to our understanding of modern history and particularly of the early phases of the Cold War… insightful and revealing."
- Zbigniew Brzezinski

"Will Clayton was an unswerving champion of global democratic capitalism. Fossedal's study demonstrates democracy in action-that ideas rule the world, and that we are obligated in these revolutionary times to export the American idea to the whole world as Mr. Clayton sought to do."
- John Kemp

From the Publisher