Spanning the Century: The Life of W. Averell Harriman, 1891-1986 Hardcover – January 1, 1992

After reading “The Marshall Plan” by Benn Steil, I discovered I knew little about two men who were key to that time in history. They were Averell Harriman (1891-1986) and Dean Acheson (1893-1971). I obtained biographies of both men.Averell Harriman’s life and career spanned an interesting and fast changing time from 1898 to 1986. I have discovered in my reading that Harry Truman, George Marshall, Arthur Vandenberg, George Kennan, Dean Acheson and Averell Harriman all played a key role in developing and implementing the Marshall Plan. George Kennan had analytical and strategic brilliance. Dean Acheson had a commanding presence and international skill. Harriman had a legendary one-on-one negotiating skill. He had an uncanny sense of what, as a negotiator, would work and what would not. He acquired this skill as a railroad and shipping magnate as well as a banker and financier. These men made a magnificent team.Harriman’s life covered so much history and was intertwined with the key upper echelon people of the time. I kept coming across interesting information such as Harriman and George Herbert Walker (Bush family) were partners in the racing of several Thoroughbred race horses. Harriman had bought out August Belmont’s racing and breeding stables from the Belmont Estate. I am going to keep this book for reference as it contains so much information about the time.The hardback book is 779 pages. It is well documented and index. There are lots of photographs. My only complaint is that for a hardback book I wished the type was larger. The book was published in 1992 by William Morrow and Company.

It came as the way I expected. Silly me, I accidentally chose to return. And of course, I decided to keep it.

I haven't finished reading the book yet, but so far this is great. Averell Harriman is probably one of the most influential people of the 20th century that no one knows about. His life and work during the Cold War was particularily influential. I also loved the history of his father E.H. Harriman. Averell had a lot to live up to. I would definately buy another book from this author.

"Spanning the Century" is the only biography on W. Averill Harriman out there. Harriman, who nearly lived for 100 years, was an important civil servent who started to make his mark in World War I as a businessman who helped the Navy. From there, Harriman served Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Carter as an employee of the State Department, and Averill had a deep friendship with Winston Chruchill(in fact, Ave helped to implement Land Lease for both Churchill and Stalin). In the 50's, Ave was a one-term Democratic Governor of New York. In fact, he wished to be called "governor" when addressed. Abramson's book addresses Harriman's faults and mistakes, as well as the good he did as a public servent, and Abramson helps to restore the reputation of E.H Harriman, a major railroad tycoon, and Ave's father. At over 700 pages, you will learn everything about him. A throughly and mastefully done book. It did help that Harriman cooperated with releasing a ton of material for Abramson to use.

The first hundred pages or so are terribly boring, covering the polo-playing businessman Harriman, who, for whatever his better qualities, is quite dull. The book picks up when Harriman enters the world of international diplomacy. While Harriman seemed to have no dazzling insights, his pragmatic approach to diplomacy and the great cast of characters whom he encountered makes the remainder of his biography interesting.

A well written bio of a wealthy American Patriot. His father was a railroad baron. Harriman served several presidents as a special envoy to European governments and Russia.

An interesting book for all those who want to know more about the American polititians of the 20th Century and particularly the history from one man's perspective of World War II.This book is well written and accurate.

What would Franklin D. Roosevelt think about the Performance of the UN since its inauguration? The UN has not delivered what he hoped for that is permanent peace. There has not been a third world war and may be the UN has made a contribution. There have however several wars between small countries and civil wars. The UN has shown itself to be a more useful organization than the League of Nations it replaced.Roosevelt realized that the allocation of responsibility to prevent and halt wars could only be assigned to great powers and that if these great powers would not join the UN unless, the "Policemen" had a right of veto on the use of force. Roosevelt would be disappointed that these veto powers were used so frequently. Roosevelt would have expected at there would be one United Europe representative with real power instead stead of two representing only a small part of Europe. He would also have welcomed India and Japan to join the Security Council. He would still be convinced that his idea of a few large powers with the responsibility to maintain peace was the right principle. He would have concluded that new methods have to found to reduce tensions inside and between states and solve poverty problems.This book describes in an excellent and complete way the difficulties to arrive at the organization and its rules and authority. The authors also describe the organizational weaknesses of the UN organization such as the lack of competences of many of the staff and the immense difficulties to reorganizing the UN to become more efficient and effective.The authors conclude:"The challenge to the American political system is to recognize both the fundamental importance of the United Nations organization and it's limitations. The United States should take a leading role in an effort to strengthen a UN peacekeeping system that is deliberately designed to reduce the need for US-led military effort. Our civilization needs a police force. The best available combination solution is still the United Nations strongly supported by the United States-the formula that Franklin Roosevelt fought with all his strength to achieve more than half a century ago."

The author's notes say more about the man than the book . The subject edited very heavily I suspect. I wonder why? A must for all conspiracy theorists.