Using Multiperspectivity by Robert Stradling

Bob Stradling

Using Multiperspectivity

In European history very few accounts of significant events and

developments are wholly right or wholly wrong. This often leads to a

multitude of perspectives on the same events, each of which can help us

to understand what happened and why. It is for this reason that

multiperspectivity, if used well, can be a real benefit to students and

their teachers.

Multiperspectivity allows us to present history in a more rounded and

balanced way than the traditional “grand narrative”. It encourages us to

focus on how the key actors at a particular time in history, the eye

witnesses, the ordinary people involved, the journalists and the

historians used the evidence available to them to construct their own

interpretations of events which, when taken together, can also help us

to form our historical interpretation as well.

The following screens provide a case study of how multiperspectivity can benefit the teaching and learning of

history. Using the Economic Recovery Plan (usually referred to as the Marshall Plan) as an example we will view how a range of sources from different countries and groups can be brought together to forge an understanding of a subject from multiple

perspectives and viewpoints.

Illingworth cartoon detailing how the Marshall Plan was received both positively and negatively in Europe, June 1947

Using Multiperspectivity

This American poster was published to promote the Marshall Plan

This cartoon, from the Soviet paper Izvestiya (Nov. 3, 1949), shows Paul Hoffman, head of the Economic Cooperation Administration, attacking the sovereignty as well as the tariff barriers of Marshall Plan countries with a club of dollars.

Using Multiperspectivity -comparing sources for the Marshall Plan

Examples of material to be found on Historiana

You can listen to George C. Marshall’s famous speech


Harry S. Truman, the American president

“it will be necessary to re-establish economic balance before political balance can be re-established”

You can read primary documents from those who played a major role to find out why it was implemented

Harry S. Truman


The French socialist newspaper L’Action

“Western Europe [will] be reduced to being a semi-American colony and drawn into an aggressive war against the USSR.”

Maurice Thorez - leader of the French Communists

And contrast this with other perspectives


Read transcripts and hear quotes by leaders and their

supporters from different countries

Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Secretary:

“[the Marshall Plan is] the quickest way to break down the iron curtain.”

Ernest Bevin, the British foreign secretary


Thorkil Kristensen, Minister of Finance, Denmark, 1945-47, talking in 1964:

“Denmark had not been frightfully much hurt directly by the war. But all our main markets were European countries and therefore, a general reconstruction of Europe was important for Danish export and also for Danish reconstruction”.

Thorkil Kristensen


The French Communist newspaper, L’Humanite:

“after disorganising the national economies of the countries which are under the American yoke, American

leaders now intend conclusively to subjugate the economy of these countries to their own interests.”


John S. Pesmazoglu, Director General, Ministry of Coordination in Charge of Planning Economic Development, Greece, 1951-55:

“Aid to Greece was not put immediately and in substantial amounts to the reconstruction of the country. The major part of it went to military support.”

John S. Pesmazoglu


Examine cartoons, posters, letters and much more.

In the Netherlands, in Austria and in Denmark


In the United States, in the Soviet Union and in Germany


Comecon: Unity of Goals, Unity of Action

A poster published by the Soviet Union to promote Comecon – an alternative to the Marshall Plan

What was the Soviet response?


The Czech leader Jan Masaryk:

“I went to Moscow as the foreign minister of an independent sovereign state; I returned as a Soviet slave.”

And how did eastern bloc countries view the Plan?

Jan Masaryk, the Czech leader


Unlike the other Communist countries in central and

eastern Europe, Yugoslavia accepted US aid under the

Marshall Plan. In 1945 Tito had been seen by Moscow as

one of its loyalist allies. But by 1948 relations between

Stalin and Tito were strained. Yugoslavia’s economic plan

did not follow the Soviet model. The Soviet leadership

were suspicious of the independent line Tito was taking

on so many issues. He was able to do this because he

had the full support of the Yugoslav communists due to

the success which the partisans, led by Tito, had had in

liberating their country from Axis occupation. Success

which had not depended significantly on the military

support of the Red Army. When Yugoslavia was expelled

from COMINFORM Tito decided to accept US aid and

became a founder member of the Non-Aligned

Movement.Tito, the Yugoslav leader

When so many Communist countries followed the Kremlin line in rejecting US aid in 1948-51, why did Yugoslavia accept?


COMINFORMThis was an international organisation of Communist

parties founded in 1947 at a conference convened by

Stalin. His main concern was that some East European

Communist governments had shown interest in receiving

aid from the USA. The objective of COMINFORM was to

coordinate action between the different Communist

parties in Europe under the direction of Moscow. Its

official name was the Information Bureau of the

Communist and Workers’ Parties. It was dissolved in 1955

after the death of Stalin and the process of de-

Stalinization had begun within the Soviet Union.

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The Non-Aligned MovementThe Non-Aligned Movement was founded at the height of

the Cold War in 1961 at a meeting in Belgrade, then the

capital of Yugoslavia. Its objective was to ensure the

national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity

and security of countries that were not aligned to the two

superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. As

of 2010 it had 118 member states representing nearly

two-thirds of the membership of the United Nations.

Yugoslavia was expelled in 1992 at the time of the break-

up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the

internal wars.

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Stalin on the Yugoslav leader Tito and his

comrades:

“despicable traitors and imperialist

hirelings,”

“gangs of spies, provocateurs, and

murderers,”

“dogs tied to American leashes,

gnawing imperialist bones, and barking

for American capital.”Cartoon of Stalin produced by

unknown cartoonist for the British newspaper, the Daily

Herald around 1935.

What was the Soviet response to Tito?


“The post-World War II reconstruction of the economies and polities of Western Europe was an extraordinary success. Growth was fast, distributional conflicts in large part finessed, world trade booming.”

Barry Eichengreen, who with J. Bradford De Long wrote: The Marshall Plan: History’s Most Successful Structural Adjustment Program, October 1991

What do historians and economists think now? Here’s some of the examples you can find on the website


Alan Milward, who died in 2010, was Professor of Economic History at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.


Milward argued that although the US aid between 1947 and 1951amounted to over $12 billion it was too small to significantly impact on economic recovery in Europe at that time and that the reconstruction of the economic and financial infrastructure was well underway even before aid under the Marshall Plan was provided.

“It (the Marshall Plan) gave a new

impetus to reconstruction in Western

Europe and made a decisive

contribution to the renewal of the

transport system, the modernization of

industrial and agricultural equipment,

the resumption of normal production,

the raising of productivity and the

facilitating of intra-European trade.”

Professor Herman Van der

Wee, economic historian at the University of Leuven in

Belgium


Cowen argues that the economic recoveries of West Germany, France, Italy and Belgium started before US aid was provided in 1947 and that the countries receiving the largest amounts of US aid at this time, Britain, Sweden and Greece, grew at the slowest rates between 1947 and1955. He also attributes the ‘economic miracle’ in West Germany in the 1950s to the Federal German government’s elimination of many of the restrictions on trade and prices which had been introduced by the Allied Control Commission.

Professor Tyler Cowen,

economist at George Mason University, Fairfax Virginia,

USA.


The user of Historiana may be simply surfing through the material on the Marshall Plan or other developments in

European history, acquiring a lot of useful information on the way. But we can also use the images, video and audio

to enhance their deductive and problem-solving skills.

Here is a cartoon at the time of the Marshall Plan which can be found in history textbooks

Online learning

The ToolboxDigital media allows us to take a step that text books

cannot. We can, for example, zoom in on relevant areas of this cartoon and ask questions.

Why do you suppose the cartoonist has drawn the wall so that it covers the last 'E' of EUROPE? And why

do you suppose the cartoonist has drawn a railway line cut in two by

the wall?

Who is the man peering under the wall? Why do you suppose the cartoonist chose him in

particular?

Documents

Using Multiperspectivity by Robert Stradling