Close to Home
Critics Acclaim Mellon vs. Churchill, New Book by Local Author Jill Eicher
Posted: May 12, 2025.
Overall Reception
Mellon vs. Churchill by Jill Eicher, a local resident, has received strong critical acclaim for its engaging narrative, thorough research, and fresh perspective on a largely forgotten but pivotal episode in Anglo-American relations after World War One.
The book recounts the five-year-long war of words between Andrew Mellon, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, and his British counterpart, Winston Churchill, who was the Chancellor of the Exchequer for Great Britain at that time.
The two of them quarreled over the debts owed to the United States by Britain and other allies who borrowed funds to defeat the German government during that war.
Praise from Major Publications
• The Wall Street Journal finds the book "an engaging narrative," commending Eicher for capturing the divergence in U.S. and British fortunes through the clashes of their finance chiefs. The review appreciates how the book brings to life the moral and political questions that shaped foreign policy in the 1920s and continue to echo today. The Journal is among several urbane publications that remarks on the way the author "made what otherwise might be a dull and difficult story" into "a colorful and lucid one."¹
• The Economist notes similarly that Eicher takes the technicalities of postwar debt negotiations and "spins them into a gripping yarn," one that is timely and instructive. The review declares that her "master stroke" in the narration was "to cast the wrangling between Britain and America's finance chiefs as a clash of two individuals—much as the newspapers of the day did." ²
• Publishers Weekly (starred review) praises the debut history for its "enticing blow-by-blow of the debate." The critique emphasizes how Eicher vividly reconstructed the public and private confrontations between Mellon and Churchill, and situates them within broader discussions about the League of Nations and global unity.³
• The Financial Times (London) listed the book and its "vivid account" as "a most anticipated read of 2025." Its review by former UK Treasury official Nicholas Macpherson highlights its "engaging story," and notes, like others have, that Eicher "found a way of bringing" the debt negotiations "to life by focusing on the two main protagonists." The reviewer adds: "Present-day administrations on both sides of the Atlantic may find this book instructive."4
Additional Critical Commentary
• Library Journal highly recommends the book, noting its extensive research and its success in filling a gap in the biographical records of both Churchill and Mellon. The review by Lucy Heckman also lauds the "vivid account of interwar UK-US relations."5
• The Times Literary Supplement, in a review by Michael Holzman, praises Eicher's book for its clarity in recounting the "bitter stalemate" between the United States and Great Britain over the war debts, and for bringing to present day readers these largely forgotten events, "whose implications still resonate today." 6
• Foreign Affairs points out that Eicher, in fixing on the personalities of Mellon and Churchill during the period when they debated the war debts, revisited "a seminal moment in modern world affairs."7
Critical Conclusion
Critics widely agree that Mellon vs. Churchill is a well-researched, lively, and insightful account of an overlooked episode in 20th-century history. Eicher’s ability to humanize both Mellon and Churchill, while illuminating the broader stakes of their conflict, has made the book a notable—and accessible— contribution to both ecoonomic and diplomatic history.
Additional Media Attention and Appearances
Since the book's publication, Eicher has been invited to participate in several forums, lectures, and podcasts.
These include an appearance at the well-known Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C., on March 9 (as shown in photograph above left); and to deliver, on April 24, a "Legacy Lecture" at the George C. Marshall Foundation in Lexington, Virginia (as shown in photograph at right).
Major media appearances include an interview with Matt Chorley of BBC radio on April 24, the day the book was released in England; and an hour-long interview with Brian Lamb of C-SPAN for the Booknotes+ podcast which aired on April 29.8
She was also invited to tell the inside story of how she came to write the book by Graydon Carter's digital publication, Airmail, which appeared on March 27.9
About the Author
According to her book's Amazon page, Jill Eicher is an independent scholar and writer living in Washington, D.C. After a career in investment management, she served at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and worked at the Bipartisan Policy Center. She has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University and, most recently, at the International Churchill Society. Mellon vs. Churchill is her first book.
Eicher is also a member of the West End Library Friends, in Washington, D.C., and the Friends of the Arlington Public Library, in Arlington, Virginia.
A limited preview of Mellon vs. Churchill can be found on Google Books.
Notes
1. Benn Steil, "A Few Billion Between Friends," Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2005, pp. C7-C8.
2."The Debt Sealing," The Economist, March 29, 2025 p. 77-78.
3. "Mellon vs. Churchill: The Untold Story of Treasury Titans at War," Publisher's Weekly, Nov. 14, 2024 (on-line).
4. Nicolas Macpherson, "The Co-Operative Art of the Deal," The Financial Times (London), March 8, 2025, p. 9
5. Lucy Heckman, "History: Mellon vs. Churchill," Library Journal, Feb. 1, 2025. (on-line).
6. Michael Holzman, "Never a Borrower Be: Anglo-American Antagonism over War Debt," Times Literary Supplement (London), Apr. 11, 2025, p. 10.
7. Andrew Moravcsik, "Recent Books: Mellon vs. Churchill," Foreign Affairs, Vol. 104, No. 02 (March/April 2025), p. 194.
8. Brian Lamb, C-SPAN Booknotes+, Episode 216: Jill Eicher, "Mellon vs. Churchill," April 29, 2012 (on-line).
9. Jill Eicher, "Titans at War," Airmail, March 27, 2025, (on-line).
About the PostmarkWashington logotype background: Detail, John F. Peto, Old Time Letter Rack, 1894. Collection of Terra Foundation of American Art. Ex Manoogian.