The Arsenal of Democracy

Title of book: The Arsenal of Democracy
Author: A.J. Baime
364 pages, including index and notes
Copyright: 2014

This is an excellent book about the manufacturing industry during WWII that was every bit as important as the combat side. Mr. Baime does a great job explaining the many problems encountered transforming peacetime production into full scale war production which was so vital for supplying the troops. It is basically about the Ford Motor Company and the challenge to build the B-24 bomber, but depicts the problems that all the companies encountered during this period--employment problems with the draft in place, transportation and housing problems with gas and rubber rationing, race problems, union labor problems, and so many others, including pressure from the government.

I would say that the book is about a miracle that enabled the Allies to win the war.

This book is a must read for all WWII enthusiast to understand the importance of the "other front" that was fought at home and mainly overshadowed by the combat aspect of the war.

I knew so little about this subject that it was difficult to put down. It was well researched, easy to read and understand, and for what would seem to be a boring subject, it was more like reading a novel, only it was true.

Highly recommended..

 

There have been a lot of books on this topic...Does this one bring anything new to the table?

 

Excellent tip ... I think I need to get this book it sounds very interesting and thanks for sharing your insight on it !

 

Takao, I'm a little ashamed to admit that I always passed by the books on this subject in favor of the glorious combat related books--so I honestly can't answer your question. I always had the impression that the transformation from peacetime production to producing war material was a seamless, easy job and why waste time reading some technical details of how they re-tooled a production line. .But now I have a whole new respect for how these guys overcame all the problems and made it all work as quickly as they did. I worked construction so I knew a little about finding housing in some remote site, but we were never confronted with gas rationing, or race problems or material shortages, etc so it never entered my mind.
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The US Army created a research group on industrial mobilization post WWI and its job was constantly drafting an up-to-date mobilization plan to convert the civilian industry into a war industry.