Aftermath: The Makers of the Postwar World

The Second World War ended in 1945, but the years that followed are far less remembered than the fighting. Richard Crowder looks at that period, when a fragile peace had to be built out of ruins and old empires had broken apart.

Aftermath focuses on the people who made that settlement. Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin and Truman all appear here, and the book also gives space to figures who get less attention, including George Marshall and John Maynard Keynes. Crowder shows how these leaders faced a redrawn political map and set out to make peace.

Much of the interest lies in what they left behind. The United Nations, NATO and other international bodies they helped create still shape world affairs. Crowder examines how ambitious these planners were in rebuilding the world, including their hope of starting another era of global trade. Students of diplomacy and economic history will find plenty to follow, and general readers get a lively narrative full of anecdotes.

Edition note: published by I.B. Tauris in 2015, 320 pages, ISBN-13 9781784531027.