How did Jean Monnet, an entrepreneurial internationalist who never held an elective office, never joined a political party and never developed any significant popular following in France become one of the most influential European statesmen of the twentieth century? How did he set in motion the process of European integration? Sherrill Brown Wells’ political biography offers insights into how this unlikely Frenchman not only had a major impact on European politics and transatlantic relations, especially between 1945 and 1954, but also was the single most important architect of European integration.
Sherrill Brown Wells presents a concise historical summary of the critical early years of European integration. It contains a rich collection of documents illustrating that history from French, German, British, Italian, Dutch, Belgian, and American archives. Some of the French documents from the Monnet archives at La Fondation Jean Monnet pour l’Europe in Lausanne in this volume have been translated and are published here in English for the first time.