Architects of Globalism

About

Architects of Globalism provides the first comprehensive analysis of American Blueprints for the reconstruction of the world after the defeat of Hitler and his allies. Working closely with Roosevelt and Truman, State Department officials assumed primary responsibility for drafting these plans. Hearden shows that bitter rivalries frequently divided these officials, but that there was remarkable agreement among them on fundamental principles. These architects of globalism sought to create a liberal capitalist world system, in which foreign markets would absorb the surplus products of American farms and factories so that the United States would be able to maintain high levels of employment without further government intervention in the economy.

Hearden shows these men contending with the vital issues of the day: decolonization and the dismantling of empires, relations with the Soviet Union, the formation of the United Nations, the economic reconstruction of war-torn countries, the forging of new relations with Germany and Japan, the twin problems of Palestine and petroleum. Based on extensive new research in primary sources — from policymakers’ private letters and personal diaries to official correspondence — this exciting book documents the formation of the postwar world.

Author

Patrick J. Hearden is an associate professor of history at Purdue University. His books include The Tragedy of Vietnam and Roosevelt Confronts Hitler: America’s Entry into World War Two.

Praise

“Hearden’s book is the best in the field. [It] is impressively researched and is comprehensive in dealing with nearly every aspect of State Department wartime planning for the postwar world. . . . Hearden presents a well-documented account of the . . . drive for open doors, free markets, and a re-unified world economy. . . . Hearden has mastered, as no one else has, the intricacies of U.S. policies and local issues in nearly every part of the world. . . . It will make a splash among historians.”
—Frank Costigliola, professor of history at the University of Connecticut

“The book’s strengths are an immense amount of research in U.S. records [and] a clear and direct writing style. . . . I know of no other work that gets the most important postwar planning in one place, sets up a context, and is based on this kind of research in American sources. [This book] should become a reference work for scholars.”
—Walter LaFeber, The Andrew and James Tisch Distinguished Professor of History at Cornell University