The Summit
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The idea of world leaders gathering in the midst of economic crisis is now familiar. But 1944's meeting at Bretton Woods was different. It was the only time countries agreed to overhaul the structure of the international monetary system. Their resulting system presided over the longest period of growth in history. Its demise decades later was at least partly responsible for the financial collapse of the 2000s.But what everyone has assumed to be a dry economic conference was in fact replete with drama. The delegates spent half the time at each other's throats and the other half drinking in the bar. All the while, war in Europe raged on.The heart of the conference was the love-hate relationship between John Maynard Keynes — the greatest economist of his day, who suffered a heart attack at the conference — and his American counterpart Harry Dexter White (later revealed to be passing information to Russian spies). Both were intent on creating a settlement which would prevent another war while at the same time defending their countries' interests.Drawing on unpublished accounts, diaries, and oral histories, The Summit describes the conference in stunning color and clarity. Written with exceptional verve and narrative pace, this is an extraordinary debut from a talented new historian.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The celebrated agreement that mapped the postwar world's system of stable, convertible exchange rates and gave birth to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank was a dramatic, dicey affair, according to this lively history. The Bretton Woods Conference was held in New Hampshire at the end of WWII, conceived as an opportunity for the Allies to work together to hash out a new economic order. Sky News economics editor Conway frames the story as a showdown between the brilliant, abrasive British economist John Maynard Keynes, with his vision of an international currency and automatic mechanisms to alleviate international trade imbalances, and the Machiavellian U.S. Treasury official Harry Dexter White, whose more conservative plan won out pointing to the ascendency of the U.S. over Great Britain as a global superpower toward the end of WWII. The two key players are surrounded by a menagerie of colorful characters, from Keynes's wife Lydia, who scandalized conference goers by skinny dipping in the hotel's pond, to the blustery, hard-drinking Soviet contingent (to whom White was suspected of passing secrets). Conway's entertaining narrative gives a lucid, engaging rundown of underlying economic issues, although his case for the indispensability of the Bretton Woods system, which collapsed in the 1970s, is less than compelling. More illuminating is his portrayal of grand economic institutions as flawed, haphazard structures improvised by confused and exhausted bureaucrats. Photos.
