The mobilization of the U.S. economy to prevail in World War II stands as an exemplar case of a great power succeeding in a great enterprise. At the end of the 1930s, the United States had the seventeenth largest army in the world. Within a half dozen years, it was the preeminent world power, not just leading but also arming coalitions that defeated two powers, Germany and Japan, that had conquered much Europe and East Asia. Arthur Herman tells the story of how this was achieved. President Roosevelt recruited industrial leaders, including the head of General Motors, to lead an economy-wide mobilization effort. It harnessed the productive capacities of virtually all major companies, including Ford, GM, and Curtiss-Wright, and ultimately produced such enormous quantities of planes, tanks, ships, and materiel that the military balance tipped in favor of the Allies. The scale and speed of this effort is without comparison in history. Much can be learned from this case about how a great power can compete to achieve an overmatch of its adversaries.
Guiding Questions
- How did American business leaders reconcile the demands of massive wartime production with the preservation of free-market principles?
- In what ways did individual innovation and decentralized problem-solving, rather than centralized government planning, lead the United States to become the "Arsenal of Democracy" during World War II?