The British economic historian who upended the narrative of postwar recovery by arguing the Marshall Plan was not economically necessary
"The alleged economic crisis of the summer of 1947 in Western Europe did not exist, except as a shortage of foreign exchange caused by the vigor of the European investment and production boom."
The British economic historian Alan Milward was the most influential revisionist scholar of postwar Western European reconstruction and integration. In his 1984 work *The Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1945-1951*, he argued that the Marshall Plan was not economically necessary for recovery: the 'crisis' of 1947 was not economic collapse but a dollar shortage caused by a vigorous investment and production boom, and under the counterfactual of freezing consumption at 1947 levels, most recipients could have paid for their imports without aid. His later book *The European Rescue of the Nation-State* (1992) argued that European integration was not a supranational ideal but a political choice to rescue individual nation-states after the fascist challenge.
Career Timeline
- 1960–1965Lecturer in economic history, University of Edinburgh
- 1965–1968Lecturer then senior lecturer, University of East Anglia
- 1968–1971Associate professor of economics, Stanford University
- 1971–1983Professor of European studies, UMIST
- 1983–1986Professor, European University Institute, Florence
- 1986–1996Professor of economic history, LSE
- 1993Official historian, Cabinet Office
- 1996–2002Professor, European University Institute, Florence