Open Access
The intellectual legacy of Alan S Milward
Frances M. B. Lynch,Fernando Guirao +1 more
- 01 Jan 2014
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Abstract: Alan S. Milward was a contemporary historian who was driven by a compelling desire to understand the forces responsible for change in twentieth century Europe. Graduating in 1956 with a first class degree in medieval and modern history from University College London he went on to develop a method which was to characterize his research activity throughout the next fifty years and which was to place him apart from most other historians of his generation. This was to approach the writing of history by first of all understanding the relevant social science theories, whether they were of classical economics, political science, or sociology, before immersing himself in a wide range of national archives (due to his capacity to master a number of European languages) and economic statistics which were to provide the evidence against which he would test the existing theories. He thus combined the political historian’s method of consulting the written record with the economic historian’s use of statistical data and the social scientist’s preference for general theory. On the strength of the resulting research methodology he produced a series of highly original histories of nineteenth and twentieth century Europe which tackled the big historical questions of his time: the nature of Nazism; of total war; of economic development in modern Europe; and the reasons for the sustained economic boom in Western Europe after 1945 and for the origins of European integration. In so far as his conclusions on each separate theme challenged the dominant theories they stimulated considerable debate. In what follows we will present a short summary of Milward’s own views on each of these issues as an introduction to the wide debates which Milward’s work has provoked. It is important to underline from the outset that due to constraints of space we can do no more than touch on these debates and on the historiographical context in which they took place. Our primary focus is on Milward’s thought as it developed over fifty years of historical research.1
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The intellectual legacy of Alan S Milward
Frances M. B. Lynch,Fernando Guirao +1 more
- 01 Jan 2014
Abstract: Alan S. Milward was a contemporary historian who was driven by a compelling desire to understand the forces responsible for change in twentieth century Europe. Graduating in 1956 with a first class degree in medieval and modern history from University College London he went on to develop a method which was to characterize his research activity throughout the next fifty years and which was to place him apart from most other historians of his generation. This was to approach the writing of history by first of all understanding the relevant social science theories, whether they were of classical economics, political science, or sociology, before immersing himself in a wide range of national archives (due to his capacity to master a number of European languages) and economic statistics which were to provide the evidence against which he would test the existing theories. He thus combined the political historian’s method of consulting the written record with the economic historian’s use of statistical data and the social scientist’s preference for general theory. On the strength of the resulting research methodology he produced a series of highly original histories of nineteenth and twentieth century Europe which tackled the big historical questions of his time: the nature of Nazism; of total war; of economic development in modern Europe; and the reasons for the sustained economic boom in Western Europe after 1945 and for the origins of European integration. In so far as his conclusions on each separate theme challenged the dominant theories they stimulated considerable debate. In what follows we will present a short summary of Milward’s own views on each of these issues as an introduction to the wide debates which Milward’s work has provoked. It is important to underline from the outset that due to constraints of space we can do no more than touch on these debates and on the historiographical context in which they took place. Our primary focus is on Milward’s thought as it developed over fifty years of historical research.1
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The Marshall Plan: History's Most Successful Structural Adjustment Program
TL;DR: The authors examined the economic effects of the Marshall Plan, and found that it was not large enough to have significantly accelerated recovery by financing investment, aiding the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, or easing commodity bottlenecks.
The Marshall Plan. America, Britain, and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947-1952
Gérard Bossuat,Michael J. Hogan +1 more
TL;DR: The Marshall Plan and the New Deal: from New Era designs to New Deal synthesis as mentioned in this paper is a classic example of transnationalism in the context of European integration and the origins of the Marshall Plan.
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Was the Marshall Plan Necessary
TL;DR: Hogan as discussed by the authors reviewed the Marshall Plan: America, Britain and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947-1952, and concluded that "the Marshall Plan did not work well in Europe".
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The intellectual legacy of Alan S Milward
Frances M. B. Lynch,Fernando Guirao +1 more
- 01 Jan 2014
Abstract: Alan S. Milward was a contemporary historian who was driven by a compelling desire to understand the forces responsible for change in twentieth century Europe. Graduating in 1956 with a first class degree in medieval and modern history from University College London he went on to develop a method which was to characterize his research activity throughout the next fifty years and which was to place him apart from most other historians of his generation. This was to approach the writing of history by first of all understanding the relevant social science theories, whether they were of classical economics, political science, or sociology, before immersing himself in a wide range of national archives (due to his capacity to master a number of European languages) and economic statistics which were to provide the evidence against which he would test the existing theories. He thus combined the political historian’s method of consulting the written record with the economic historian’s use of statistical data and the social scientist’s preference for general theory. On the strength of the resulting research methodology he produced a series of highly original histories of nineteenth and twentieth century Europe which tackled the big historical questions of his time: the nature of Nazism; of total war; of economic development in modern Europe; and the reasons for the sustained economic boom in Western Europe after 1945 and for the origins of European integration. In so far as his conclusions on each separate theme challenged the dominant theories they stimulated considerable debate. In what follows we will present a short summary of Milward’s own views on each of these issues as an introduction to the wide debates which Milward’s work has provoked. It is important to underline from the outset that due to constraints of space we can do no more than touch on these debates and on the historiographical context in which they took place. Our primary focus is on Milward’s thought as it developed over fifty years of historical research.1
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