The Summit: Bretton Woods, 1944: J. M. Keynes and the Reshaping of the Global Economy
Ed Conway
Pegasus Books (2015)

A brilliant analysis of the unique significance of “the very highest point of modern international economic diplomacy”

Here is probably the definitive account of what happened when 730 delegates from 44 allied nations gathered at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, from July 1 until July 22 in 1944, in order to prevent “yet more bloodshed by reshaping the world’s economy.”

Ed Conway observes, “When economic historians write about Bretton Woods today they do so as if it were hermetically sealed, a sterile Petri dish in which economists and technicians constructed the world economy of the future. In reality, the three weeks of ‘considered negotiations’ at the Mount Washington Hotel were tense, chaotic, and fractious. They could hardly have been otherwise given the nature of the main protagonists [Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes]: two men determined to use the conference to safeguard their own economies; a duo whose fight with each other had begun years ago, and whose determination to redraw the economic map could be traced all the way back to 1918.”

I commend Conway on his brilliant skills when “setting the table” in the Prologue (“Saturday 22 July 1944) and then in Chapter 1 (“The Mount Washington”), followed by Parts I and II in which Chapters Two-Nine examine a timeframe from 1918 until June 1944. He devotes a separate chapter to each of the three weeks of “the summit” in Part III and then, in Part IV, shares his research and thoughts about what he learned with regard to “the life and death of Bretton Woods,” followed by an Epilogue. I never once felt overwhelmed by the abundance of historical information Conway provides, nor did the narrative seem to sag or splinter throughout more than four hundred pages of material. He also displays uncommon wit as indicated by several of his chapter titles such as “Snakebite Party” (Eight), “Babel on Wheels” (Nine), and “Starvation Corner” (Fourteen).

Many (if not most) of those who read this book will appreciate as much as I do the provision of information and insights about individuals and events that preceded the conference in New Hampshire. As he explains, “It is the aim of this book to describe what really happened in those remarkable twenty-two days — and, of course, the months and years surrounding the meetings and behind-the-scenes debates that are equally intriguing.” Bullseye!

These are among the questions of greatest interest to which he responds with erudition as well as eloquence:

o The profound significance of certain major events that occurred from the end of World War 1 in 1918 until the Bretton Woods conference in July 1944
o Why the assembly was convened at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire
o Initially, the hopes, expectations, and concerns of the “Big Four”: US, Russia (USSR), UK, and France
o The major developments that occurred during a three-week period
o The nature and extent of various “collisions of interests throughout the conference”
o The major obstacles to consummating an agreement on the governance of the world economy
o The reasons for the ongoing “row” between the US and Russia (USSR)
o The roles of the key “players” who included Henry Morgenthau and Harry Dexter White (US); John Maynard Keynes, Dennis Robinson, and Lionel Robbins (UK); Pierre Mendès France (France); and Mikhail Stepanovich and Vyacheslav Molotov (Russia/USSR)
o The impact of World War 2 developments (e.g. Normandy landings and V1 attacks) during “the summit”
o Allegations and suspicions that White was a Soviet spy
o The toll of the workload on the delegations’ support staff
o How and why the International Monetary Fund and what became the World Bank were established
o The nature and extent of influence of world leaders such as FDR, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin on various negotiations

Here are Ed Conway’s concluding remarks: “Life is messy — in international economics as much as in the everyday world must of us in habit. But in this messy world, Bretton Woods has come to represent something hopeful, something closer to perfection. The most important mission facing the world’s politicians and policymakers then, as now, was to repair the world’s economic system and rep0lace it with something better. For a time, they succeeded.”

There are important lessons to be learned from what did and didn’t happen during those 22 days. It remains to be seen whether or not those lessons will guide and inform the difficult decisions that must be made in months and years to come. Meanwhile, when watching local and national news programs each evening, I am again reminded of these lines from Yeats’s poem, The Second Coming:

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”