Benn Steil is senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War, winner of the New York Historical Society's Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History and the American Academy of Diplomacy's Douglas Dillon Award. His previous book, the prizewinning Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order, was called "a triumph of economic and diplomatic history" by the Financial Times, "a superb history" by The Wall Street Journal, and "the gold standard on its subject" by The New York Times. He lives in New York with his two boys.
"A magisterial biography of Henry Wallace." --Adrian Karatnycky,
Wall Street Journal, "Books of the Year"
"A rewarding read." --Financial Times, "Best Summer Books of
2024"
"A very impressive new biography of Wallace by Benn Steil . . . A
long-dead Vice President has much to teach us." --Forbes
"Benn Steil's engrossing account of Wallace's life and career is a
timely cautionary tale and a masterpiece of 20th-century American
history. It is the definitive biography of Henry A. Wallace, and
all the previous hagiographies can finally be consigned to the
irrelevance they so richly deserve." --Ronald Radosh, Quillette
"A brilliant and fascinating story of a charismatic and
well-meaning leader undone by Soviet propaganda. The nation was
lucky to have Harry Truman in position as VP when FDR died--but it
was a near run thing. Exceptional history, engrossing story
telling." --Admiral James Stavridis
"Benn Steil's new book, The World That Wasn't, demonstrates that
Wallace would not have saved the United States from a rivalry with
the Soviet Union. . . . But Steil highlights a larger lesson: It
takes two to make peace. Through diplomacy, states can resolve
conflicts, but if one actor will not relent, the options are
appeasement or confrontation, not real peace." --Washington
Examiner
"Timely, riveting . . . Historian Benn Steil's new biography should
be read right now." --George F. Will, The Washington Post
"A groundbreaking biography . . . Benn Steil comes closer than
anyone before him to unraveling the enigma of this visionary hybrid
of feeling and fact." --Richard Norton Smith, Washington Free
Beacon
"A rigorously researched and revelatory new Wallace biography."
--New York Journal of Books
"American history--and world history--could have turned out very
differently if just a few things had gone the other way. Most
notably, the U.S. after World War II might have pursued a
pro-Soviet foreign policy, consigning Europe to Communist control,
if President Franklin Roosevelt had died in the middle of his third
term or if the 1944 Democratic National Convention had not dumped
Vice President Henry Wallace for Harry Truman. How this
counterfactual history came close to happening, and how it was
prevented, is the subject of Benn Steil's definitive account, The
World That Wasn't." --Wall Street Journal
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
