Customer Reviews

Memoirs

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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."

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

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.

Jean Monnet changed history. Not through political office, but through the power of a great idea and an intelligent and unyielding campaign to make the idea a reality, a campaign that was simultaneously idealistic and utterly grounded in both principle and reality.

Monnet deserves to be recognized, alongside King and Gandhi, as one of the three great citizen leaders of the 20th century. The book tells his stories in his own words. It is worth reading.

I read this book because of making a paper in my class of political leadership & elite. There is an interesting article on Monnet in H.Gardner book about political leaders. Monnet was promoting his vision by using other political leaders .In the same time he was offering them the glory (f.e. Schuman plan). If anyone wants to exchange opinions on the matter let me know! alexandros@mauimail.com