Robert McNamara's Other War - (Politics and Culture in Modern America) by Patrick Allan Sharma (Hardcover)

About the Book

Robert McNamara's Other War chronicles the former defense secretary's thirteen-year presidency of the World Bank. Using previously unstudied World Bank documents, Patrick Allan Sharma recounts the World Bank's transformation under McNamara and highlights his complex legacy.

Book Synopsis

Robert McNamara is best known for his key role in the escalation of the Vietnam War as U.S. secretary of defense under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. The familiar story begins with the brilliant young executive transforming Ford Motor Company, followed by his rise to political power under Kennedy, and culminating in his downfall after eight years of failed military policies. Many believe McNamara's fall from grace after Vietnam marked the end of his career. They were wrong.

In Robert McNamara's Other War, Patrick Allan Sharma reveals the previously untold story of what happened next. As president of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981, McNamara changed the way many people thought about international development by shifting the World Bank's focus to poverty alleviation. Though his efforts to redeem himself after his failures in Vietnam were well-intentioned, Sharma argues, his expansion of the World Bank's agenda contributed to a decline in the quality of its activities. McNamara's policies at the Bank also helped lay the groundwork for the economic crises that have plagued the developing world during the past three decades.

Not only has Sharma crafted an engaging chronicle of one of the most enigmatic figures in modern American history; he has also produced one of the first detailed histories of the World Bank. He mines previously unstudied Bank documents that have only recently become available to researchers as well as material from archives on three continents. Sharma's extensive research shows that McNamara's influence extended well beyond Vietnam and that his World Bank years may be his most enduring legacy.

Review Quotes

"Robert McNamara's Other War reconstructs a pivotal phase in McNamara's career-a phase that is only now coming into focus for historians. Sharma has done groundbreaking historical work, making significant contributions to scholarship and displaying impressive command of economics and finance."-- "Daniel Sargent, University of California, Berkeley"

"Written with energy and clarity, Robert McNamara's Other War illuminates the policies and politics of the World Bank in a critical period of transformation under McNamara's defining presidency. Patrick Sharma explains how McNamara drastically changed the Bank and, in the process, was a seminal figure in the history of development, international institutions, and the international history of the 1970s."-- "David Ekbladh, Tufts University"

About the Author

Patrick Allan Sharma is an attorney in Los Angeles.