Narrative Non-fiction · Hardback

The Journey to Bretton Woods

Norwegian title: Reisen til Bretton Woods

Early one summers day of 1944, a small group of economists set to sea. Their wish was to create a better world. In their wake, London was getting over the first attack performed with the VI – the flying bomb – Hitlers new super weapon. Under the deck of the boat 2000 German war prisoners from the landing at Normandy was kept. On the bridge, Commodore Bisset, the English commercial fleets biggest hero. Ahead of them all – seven days at sea, journeying to the Bretton Woods-conference in the US.

Reinertsen tells the tale about the boat journey that would lay the grounds for world economy the way we know it in our time, 70 years later. During the crossing the travellers drafted what would become IMF and The World Bank, while The Queen Mary was criss-crossing to avoid German submarines. Because of the war, the Atlantic more or less vast and empty, apart from the group of economists on deck discussing rules and deprecation of currencies. This journey at sea becomes a prism to describe the past – what was it that lead the way to Bretton Woods? – And for the future: What was the effect it had on the world in the half century that followed, and what traces can we still see today?

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