Memoirs [Hardcover]

Jean Monnet (Author), Richard Mayne (Translator), George W. Ball (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday & Company; 1st Ed. (U.S.) edition (1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385125054
• ISBN-13: 978-0385125055
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #717,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A glimpse into the mind that created the European Community, March 2, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Memoirs (Hardcover)

Starting life as the net-in-line to a prosperous Cognac producer, his extensive European connections and business skills led Jean Monnet to be named as a prime European liason to the US during WWII. His sole mission was to secure critical supplies for waging the war against the Nazis. Chasing item after crucial item, he learned and became fascinated with the workings of a true free market economy. After the war he set out on a single minded mission to create the United States of Europe out of the chaos left by the war. Fighting centuries of division, animosity, and separatism, Jean doggedly advanced his concept of a free market covering the entire map of Europe. He was convinced that this would result in a renaissance of European industry and commerce, and the hearts and minds of Europeans would follow their pocketbooks. Told in a very matt-of-fact manner, his persistence and uncompromising attention to even the slightest detail gives insight as to how he succeeded in planting the seeds of the modern European Community. His influence was so great that the Economist magazine has consistently advocated that the new European Community common currency be called the "Monnet."

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic read of a piece of history, September 27, 2011

By 

Draco - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memoirs (Hardcover)

This is a fantastic read of a piece of history. Written in a very good, readable manner, reads like a political thriller.

5.0 out of 5 stars The almost unknown story of the founder of the E.E.C., January 10, 2010

By 

Baraniecki Mark Stuart (Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Memoirs (Hardcover)

Jean Monnet's memoirs illuminate the foundation of the European community and show what a hard slog it was to promote the common interest in the face of traditional nationalism.

During the war he pushed for an unrealistic merger of Great Britain and France (yes, one country with two languages) and in post war Europe, a merger of France and Germany as a stepping stone to a United States of Europe. The U.S.E. was to function in a similar way to the U.S.A.

None of this got anywhere, but post WW2 Europe presented a very special situation as countries emerged from the ruins of nationalist Nazi violence. Governments thought more about cooperation than conflict, particularly with regard to rebuilding Germany in a safe European framework, and it was fortunate for Europe that Adenauer, the new German chancellor, saw and took the opportunity, stating to the Bundestag, "Let me make a point of declaring in so many words and in full agreement, not only with the French government but also with M. Jean Monnet, that the importance of this project is above all political and not economic,". A further vital step was a French and German agreement (guided by Monnet) to a Community based on equality rather than a balance of power, with the eventual result being the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952 with Monnet himself as President and sovereign powers conceded by the the governments of France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg.

The book shows Monnet to be a dogged opponent of nationalism, promoting a "level economic playing field" between European nations. He would have been delighted to see the Euro common currency, european anti-trust legislation, the removal of tariff barriers and the free movement of European people, but at the same time he would have regretted that a true United States of Europe was impossible.

Not an easy read but a very valuable book.