World War II scattered early neoliberal organizers and recast their enemy as socialist planning

Evidence

As Richard Cockett (1995, 12) noted, however, “it was, of course, an inauspicious moment to start founding new international organizations of ambitious intentions.” The outbreak of World War II abruptly halted this nascent attempt at organizing (neo)liberal forces. It scattered many of the participants, and of course, gave a tremendous boost to the socialists, thus recasting the enemy as a different species of totalitarian after the war. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 111

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that war ‘gave a tremendous boost to the socialists’ is asserted without detail — worth chasing how the postwar leftward shift shaped the later MPS agenda.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 111
• XREF: connects to: World War II isolation compelled émigré economists to shift from advocacy to survival. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 202; Early neoliberals were mainstream in 1939 but marginal by 1945 — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 405; US wartime capitalism was run on Soviet-style central planning (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The French neoliberal network collapsed during World War II as its members scattered politically. #exemplifies (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 284
• World War II’s outcome destroyed modernism’s spurring historical forces #qualifies (0.80) — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 218
• Neoliberalism crystallized partly as opposition to scientists promoting planned socialism #expands (0.75)