Synopses & Reviews
In this era of globalization, it is easy to forget that today's free market values were not always predominant. But as this history of the birth of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) shows, the principles and practices underlying our current international economy once represented contested ground between U.S. policymakers, Congress, and America's closest allies. Here, Thomas Zeiler shows how the diplomatic and political considerations of the Cold War shaped American trade policy during the critical years from 1940 to 1953.
Zeiler traces the debate between proponents of free trade and advocates of protectionism, showing how and why a compromise ultimately triumphed. Placing a liberal trade policy in the service of diplomacy as a means of confronting communism, American officials forged a consensus among politicians of all stripes for freerif not freetrade that persists to this day. Constructed from inherently contradictory impulses, the system of international trade that evolved under GATT was flexible enough to promote American economic and political interests both at home and abroad, says Zeiler, and it is just such flexibility that has allowed GATT to endure.
Review
Zeiler has written an excellent, timely book on how GATT was created in the 1940s.
Foreign Affairs
Review
A penetrating, gracefully written history of the political economy of the international community during the dawning of the Cold War.
Randall B. Woods, University of Arkansas
Review
His book rests on an impressive foundation of research in U.S. and foreign archives.
Alfred E. Eckes Jr., Ohio University
Synopsis
A history of the birth of GATT, this book traces the debate between proponents of free trade and advocates of protectionism, showing why compromise ultimately triumphed: American officials forged a consensus for freer trade as a means of confronting Communism.
Synopsis
A balanced picture of the politics of an episode that has not received much attention.
American Historical Review Zeiler has written an excellent, timely book on how GATT was created in the 1940s.
Foreign Affairs A penetrating, gracefully written history of the political economy of the international community during the dawning of the Cold War.
Randall B. Woods, University of Arkansas His book rests on an impressive foundation of research in U.S. and foreign archives.
Alfred E. Eckes Jr., Ohio University
About the Author
Thomas W. Zeiler, associate professor of history at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is author of American Trade and Power in the 1960s.
Table of Contents
ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 War and Peace, 1940-1943
Chapter 2 Defending the Empire, 1941-1944
Chapter 3 Modified Multilateralism, 1944-1945
Chapter 4 Planning in the Cold War, 1946
Chapter 5 The Republicans Strike Back, 1946-1948
Chapter 6 Managing Protectionism, 1947
Chapter 7 Concessions for the Commonwealth, 1947
Chapter 8 The Compromise Charter, 1947-1948
Chapter 9 The End of Idealism, 1948-1950
Chapter 10 Trade Liberalism on Track, 1949
Chapter 11 Cold War Ideals, 1950-1953
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
Cordell Hull observes as Roosevelt signs the repeal of the arms embargo, November 1939
John Maynard Keynes with Henry Morgenthau
Roosevelt and Churchill at the Atlantic Charter Conference, August 1941
Hull with Roosevelt
William Clayton with Richard Stafford Cripps
Australian minister of external affairs Herbert Vere Evatt and prime minister Benjamin Chifley with Labour compatriot, Clement Attlee
Senators Arthur Vandenberg, Eugene Millikin, and Robert Taft
Senator Joseph O'Mahoney with Senator Tom Connally, April 1947
Herbert C. Coombs, Australia's delegation chief in Geneva
Clayton and Cripps in Geneva
Canada's Dana Wilgress, chairman of the GATT Contracting Parties and ITO Preparatory Committee in Geneva
Winthrop Brown
Cripps and John Dedman, Australian minister for postwar reconstruction
Clair Wilcox
Clayton signs the Havana Charter, March 23, 1948
Philip Cortney with members of the U.S. Council of International Chambers of Commerce
Truman and Attlee with Dean Acheson and George Marshall, December 1950
Truman restores the powers of the RTAA, with Cordell Hull, James Webb, Oscar Ryder, Scott Lucas, Sam Rayburn, Walter George, Robert Doughton, Tom Connally, and Jere Cooper, 1949
Cartoon: Trade, not aid, believed the incoming Eisenhower administration, would bolster the Free World