POSTWAR: A Global History of the Second World War's Legacy

While the Marshall plan is generally heralded as a success, its intentions were murky at best and more accurately self-serving. The Marshall Plan was disguised as a European Recovery act, and while it did provide monetary aid to the struggling post-war European countries, the Marshall Plan placed heavy contingencies on this aid. Primarily, the plan […]

  In the United States, when we hear the word “Reconstruction,” we think about the years to follow the Civil War in our country. The South lay in ruins after the Union and Confederacy went to war in the 1860s. In the case of the American Civil War, a region of a country lay in …

Continue reading “The Reconstruction of Europe and the Marshall Plan”

  After World War II, how to go about the reconstructing Europe was obviously not an easy task. There was no guide as to how to rebuild entire countries’ infrastructure, economy, and in parts, society. When entire counties are nearly in ashes, they are left vulnerable and anxious for help. The Marshall Plan was, on […]

Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Throughout Europe and the United States, “raising the standard of living had become the official watchword for postwar global reconstruction” (De Grazia 340). However the phrase of “standard of living” was coined before the end of the war. The question that jumped to my mind in terms of the term “standard of living” […]

Reconstructing Europe after World War Two had many different aspects. Aside from the obvious need to physically rebuild Europe, the economies – and thus, ideologies– also needed to be rebuilt. One of the key themes that emerged after WW2 was … Continue reading →

Devastated by intense combat, rampant death, and widespread social change and unrest, post-World War II Europe was a shadow of its pre-war self.  Buildings were flattened with shelling and explosives; infrastructures lay ruined with damage from the mass deployment of military forces; culture’s egos were bruised , and much of Europe collectively became confused about …

Continue reading “The Marshall Plan: America’s Post-WWII Power Move”

After any kind of disaster, we must learn to pick our selves up and work to prevent it from happening again. With the European economy destroyed and the world economy not looking any better, the disaster known as World War Two had a devastating effect on infrastructure, the economy, and human life. With the installation of the Marshall …

Continue reading “The Recovery of Europe Under the Marshall Plan”

All of Europe was left devastated by the effects of total war and were in desperate need of economic aid following World War Two.  The US provided aid to Europe through programs such as the Marshall plan, which in turn caused some reliance on the US for the European States.  There were initiatives taken up […]

When the war ended, the vast majority of Europe was in ruins. Buildings crumbled to the ground, only shadows of what they once were. It wasn’t just the buildings and infrastructure that had been destroyed, but the economies of Europe, and the hearts and minds of the people. It was important that measures be taken …

Continue reading “Was the Marshall Plan Really Successful?”

  During World War II, the constant bombardment of war time power had negatively effected the groups of Europe. Many citizens had no choice but to leave their homes, resulting in the displaced persons problem that I discussed in my first post on the blog. According to the Rebuilding the world after the second world war …

Continue reading “Reconstruction Europe”