Silberman, James M. Papers

Dates: 1943-2005

Assistant Chief and Chief, Branch of Productivity and Technological Developments, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, c. 1948-1950

The papers of James Silberman consist primarily of materials concerning Silberman's work with the Marshall Plan. The materials include printed materials, memorandums, journal articles, correspondence, photographs, reports, meeting minutes, travel documents, and handwritten notes

[Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List]

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Size: 1 linear foot, 9 linear inches (about 3,200 pages).
Access: Open, with the exception of documents that are closed for reasons of national security.
Copyright: The donor gave his copyrights in this collection to the U.S. government. Documents created by the U.S. government officials in the course of their duties are also in the public domain. Copyrights in documents that do not fall into these two categories presumably belong to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: David Clark (2011).


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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

James Silberman, Chief of the Productivity and Technological Development Branch of the Department of Labor, was responsible for the Productivity Assistance Program of the Marshall Plan in the late 1940s. Later, he worked as an advisor for the Center for Economic Initiatives.

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

The papers of James Silberman primarily consist of printed materials, memorandums, journal articles, correspondence, photographs, reports, meeting minutes, travel documents, and handwritten notes related to Silberman's work with the Marshall Plan. The collection consists of one series, a Subject File, arranged alphabetically by folder title.

A majority of the material in the collection dates from the late 1940s through the mid-1950s. Much of the collection consists of documents pertaining to productivity surveys and programs related to the Marshall Plan in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Italy, Japan, Latin America, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico and Sweden. Additional documents relate to the Anglo-American Council on Productivity, Economic Cooperation Administration, Mutual Security Agency, Institute of Inter-American Affairs, Organization for European Economic Cooperation, Point Four Program, Small Defense Plants Administration, and Technical Assistance Program.

The collection also includes articles written in the 1980s-2000s about the Marshall Plan, some which were authored or co-authored by Silberman. Other materials relate to the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan in 1997. During the 1990s and early 2000s, Silberman wrote articles about how a program similar to the Marshall Plan could be implemented in countries of the former Soviet Union.

Related collections at the Truman Library include the papers of Harry S. Truman (President's Secretary's Files, Official File, and Confidential File), Dean G. Acheson, Paul R. Porter, Henry B. Price, Waldemar A. Nielsen, Albert H. Huntington, Jr., Joseph M. Jones, Ellen Clayton Garwood, and Paul G. Hoffman; and the Records of the Committee for the Marshall Plan.

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SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Container Nos.

 

Series

1-4

  SUBJECT FILE, 1943-2005
Printed materials, memorandums, journal articles, correspondence, photographs, and reports. Arranged alphabetically.
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FOLDER TITLE LIST

SUBJECT FILE, 1943-2005

Box 1

  • Anglo-American Council on Productivity [1 of 2]
  • Anglo-American Council on Productivity [2 of 2]
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • "BLS and the Marshall Plan: The Forgotten Story"
  • Brazil
  • Denmark

Box 2

  • Economic Cooperation Administration
  • Ecuador
  • "Fifty Years Later: Why Not A New Marshall Plan?"
  • France [1 of 2]
  • France [2 of 2]
  • French Work Clothes Project
  • Germany
  • "Heritage of Marshall Aid: Productivity Centres and Issues, 1948-1993"
  • "History of the Technical Assistance Programs of the Marshall Plan and Successor Agencies, 1948-1961"
  • Idea Book

Box 3

  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • "Jump-Starting Ex-Communist Economies: A Leaf from the Marshall Plan"
  • Latin America
  • "Lessons From the Marshall Plan For Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union"
  • "Marshall Plan"
  • "Marshall Plan: A Legacy for the Future"?
  • "Marshall Plan for the East: Options for 1993"
  • "Marshall Plan: History's Most Successful Structural Adjustment Program"
  • Marshall Plan: Perspectives of Participants Fifty Years Later
  • Mutual Security Agency
  • Netherlands
  • Organization for European Economic Cooperation
  • Point 4

Box 4

  • Printed Materials
  • Productivity Digests
  • Productivity-Printed Materials [1 of 2]
  • Productivity-Printed Materials [2 of 2]
  • "Productivity Program of the Marshall Plan: A Successful Precedent for the Former Soviet Union"
  • Puerto Rico
  • Small Defense Plants Administration
  • Sweden
  • Technical Assistance Program
  • Training
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