In a nuanced and fresh account, James Van Hook evaluates the American role in West German recovery and the debates about economic policy within West Germany. He examines the 1948 West German economic reforms that dismantled the Nazi command economy and ushered in the fabled "economic miracle" of the 1950s. By abandoning Nazi era economic controls, the West Germans discarded a pre-1945 economic and industrial culture.

In a nuanced and fresh account, James Van Hook evaluates the American role in West German recovery and the debates about economic policy within West Germany. He examines the 1948 West German economic reforms that dismantled the Nazi command economy and ushered in the fabled "economic miracle" of the 1950s. By abandoning Nazi era economic controls, the West Germans discarded a pre-1945 economic and industrial culture.