This episode focuses on the period between 1947 and 1952, during which Europe was divided in two

by the Marshall Plan and the

Cominform. World War II left Europe ravaged and poverty stricken, and, as U.S. State-Department economist Theodore Geiger
explains, officials of the U.S. government worried that impoverished European nations would be receptive to Stalin's Communist
Party and its plans for ecomonic reform. George Elsey, aide to President Harry S. Truman, discusses Truman's foreign-aid plan to
stabilize Europe against the spread of communism. Secretary of State George Marshall met with Russian, French, and British
leaders to discuss the rebuilding of Europe. All believed that the Soviet Union intended to take advantage of the vulnerability of
European nations so Marshall formed a plan to counteract the influence of the Soviet Union by offering millions of dollars in aid to
those same nations. Yuri Modin of Soviet Intelligence recalls the espionage that confirmed Joseph Stalin's suspicions about the
Marshall Plan's aim to lure Western Europe away from Soviet influence, and Soviet foreign minister Vladimir Yerofeyev explains
why Stalin summoned foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov back from the conference at which European nations had assembled to
respond to the Marshall Plan. Czechoslovak foreign minister Antonin Sum states that his country was enthusiastic about the
Marshall Plan until Stalin urged Czechoslovakia to denounce the plan and to ally itself with the Soviet Union. Dmitri Sukhanov of the
Politburo Secretariat states that the Soviet government viewed the Marshall Plan as an aggressive and divisive act, to which Stalin
responded with a revival of international communism--the Cominform--and his own economic plan to provide aid to the Eastern bloc.
In 1948, the Soviet Union took control of Czechoslovakia, making the struggle between East and West tangible, and prompting the
U.S. to expedite the Marshall Plan. A discussion follows of the foreign aid provided to Europeans by the U.S.; Parisian student
Marianne Debouzy concludes that the plan was self-serving because it created new markets for American goods and boosted the
U.S. economy. Struggles between the United States and the Soviet Union were played out in individual Western Europe nations:
France was torn apart by strikes until the U.S. threatened to cut its aid, Yugoslavia was expelled from the Co- inform and became
allied with the West because Stalin considered President Marshal Tito too independent, and the conflict came to a head in Italy
during the 1948 general elections. Italy boasted a large communist party so the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency performed
its first covert operation to help defeat the left-wing popular front and support the Christian Democratic Party.

On the Line 1924

Henry Ford uses Taylorism, division of labour and the assembly line to manufacture automobiles, and other industries in the United States, as well as
Britain, France, Italy, Soviet Union and elsewhere follow his example. The productivity dividends that are gained allow American workers to enjoy high
pay and affordable consumer goods as compensation. However workers become increasingly frustrated from the physically demanding and alienating
aspects of the assembly line (depicted in Modern Times, Brave New World and À nous la liberté). The Great Depression weakens worker bargaining
power, but after a series of strikes in the 1930s and 1940s trade unions emerge victorious, and instruments like the Matignon Agreements in France
are established to buttress workers' rights.

Breadline 1929

The economic boom of the roaring twenties comes to a sudden halt in 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. In the years after a demoralised
army of 13 million unemployed Americans are left idle. As incomes and trade are reduced, the recession spreads to the Jarrow shipyards to
the nitrates and copper mines of Chile. In afflicted countries there are attentive audiences to solutions proffered by the extreme left and right to fixing a
problem apparently caused by the market economy, although Sweden adopts a novel approach through establishing the welfare state. President
Hoover's crackdown on the Bonus Army, a large group of protesting unemployed veterans in Washington, leads to his political demise. His
replacement, President Roosevelt, confronts the problem by initiating ambitious public works programs, which helps stimulate the economy. Britain's
economy comes out of recession in the late 1930s, thanks to the need to build up its Navy against a looming threat from Germany. One legacy of
the breadline is that people will now demand action from their governments to intervene in the market. The opening scene shows the Wall Street crash.

Boomtime 1948

Europe is exhausted and impoverished in the years after the Second World War. The United States implements the Marshall Plan to rebuild Western
Europe, partially out of generosity, and partially to keep in check communism. Despite some misgivings, the Europeans are generally grateful – tractors
increase food supplies, and American training and support builds up Europe's heavy industry. Productive industrial sectors help the United States enjoy
an unrivalled standard of living throughout the 1950s and 1960s, with living transformed through automobiles, supermarkets and Levittowns. European
managers adopt US manufacturing methods and Europe begins to manufacture, and then export, its own consumer goods. Labour shortages lead to
the employment of women and migrant workers. The West enjoys high wages and low unemployment until the 1970s energy crisis. The opening scene
shows the Friendship Train travelling through the United States around Christmas 1947, collecting charity to send to Europe.