Germany Problem by Henry Morgenthau: Signed (2 results)

Published by Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1945
- Hardcover
- First Edition
- Signed
Seller: RareNonFiction, IOBA, Ladysmith, BC, CanadaRareNonFiction, IOBA
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Condition: Used - Good
US$ 35,000.00
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Add to basketHardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. First Edition. Signed and inscribed by author, FDR's Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1891-1967), to his first cousin once removed, James Frank Jr. The infamous Morgenthau Plan charted a course for Germany post WWII intended to revert it to a pastoral state…. Senator Henrick Shipstead denounced it as "America's eternal monument of shame, for the destruction of the German people." - Congressional Record, Senate, May 15, 1946, p.5039. "The punishment policy deeply betrayed the will of the American people against indiscriminate vengeance, which had been demonstrated in the nationwide condemnation of the Morgenthau Plan." - James Bacque, Other Losses, p.158. "The Morgenthau Plan would wipe out everything in Germany except land, and the Germans would have to live on the land. Thus only 60 percent of the population could support themselves and the other 40 percent would die." - The Memoirs of Cordell Hull, p.1617. When word of the plan leaked to Goebbels he exploited it to stiffen German resistance, thus extending the war - and bringing considerable criticism upon Morgenthau. Unmarked with moderate wear to navy blue cloth. Binding sound. Above-average wear to dust jacket now preserved in archival-grade Brodart. An important and controversial piece of WWII political history.; Germany is Our Problem - A Plan for Germany, Suggested Post-Surrender Program for Germany, WWII, history, Politics, Harry Dexter White, Harsh Peace, Morgenthau Plan, Starvation, Germany Must Perish, Theodore Kaufman; Signed by Author(s).
More imagesPublished by Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1945
- First Edition
- Signed
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.Burnside Rare Books, ABAA
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used - Near fine
US$ 15,000.00
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Add to basketCondition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. First edition, first printing. A remarkable association copy not only signed by author Henry Morgenthau on the front free endpaper and inscribed to the then-President of the book's publisher, known for picking Pulitzer Prize winners: "For Cass Canfield, a swe…ll Publisher, with sincere affection." Additionally it is signed in pencil on the book's title page by one its primary ghostwriters, government official Harry Dexter White, with Morgenthau's name suggestively crossed-out. As White's biographer David Rees put it "White was now to supervise the writing of a book by Treasury staff explaining the Morgenthau Plan, eventually published a year later under Morgenthau's name as Germany is Our Problem." Morgenthau himself acknowledged White's role in the signed copy he gave White in 1945, cited in James Boughton's Harry White and the American Creed. In 1948 a handwritten note by White to Whittaker Chambers would embroil him in a covert hunt for Soviet moles within the U.S. government. He died that year but five years later his face would grace newspapers all over the world as he was accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union connected to the network of Nathan Silvermaster. His degree of culpability remains debated to this day, although release of the Venona decrypts provided damning evidence. The posthumous nature of White's notoriety has meant that his signature is extremely rare, especially on books rather than documents. viii, 4, ix - xiii, [iii], 239 pp. + foldout map, printed on speckled wartime paper. Bound in publisher's navy cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Near Fine, light rubbing to extremities, dulled gilt, and dust jacket clipping tipped to front pastedown. In a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with lightly worn with a few small tape repairs to verso. Uncommon, especially in such nice shape. The book outlines what would become known as The Morgenthau Plan for postwar Germany. The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury called for the defeated enemy's radical total deindustrialization, decentralization, and transformation into a pastoral society. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt regretted his initial support for Morgenthau's plan after it was vigorously decried at home and abroad, and his successor favored the less vengeful and more pragmatic Marshall Plan. White's role in formulating the plan that would bear his superior at the Treasury Department's name remains little-known, as it itself has fallen into obscurity since the early Cold War. Less controversial was White's role in co-founding both the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Signed.