Arsenal of Democracy: The American Automobile Industry in World War II (review)

Book Reviews 125 Charles K. Hyde. Arsenal of Democracy: The American Automobile Industry in World War II. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2013. Pp. 264. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Cloth, $39.95. This well-written book is one of the most important studies of industrial mobilization to appear in a long time. Using a wealth of primary sources, Hyde examines a major industry that brought America’s industrial might to bear on the production of military hardware, providing American and Allied forces with combat capabilities that contributed decisively to the defeat of the Axis powers. After tracing the development of Michigan’s wartime automobile industry in the broader context of defense procurement and wartime mobilization agencies, Hyde zooms in on its contribution to the production of aircraft components, engines, and entire planes. Henry Ford’s attempt to mass-produce B-24 Liberator bombers at Willow Run receives a more balanced treatment here than in other studies that heap either excessive praise or scorn on the controversial project. More importantly, Hyde also provides a close-up look at the collaboration of General Motors, Studebaker, and other automakers with highly experienced aircraft engine and airframe producers, notably Pratt & Whitney, Grumman, and Consolidated Aircraft. Innovative managers, designers, and engineers adapted the specialty firms’ batch techniques to the automobile industry’s mass-production formats without losing the ability to incorporate frequent design changes demanded by the military. Hyde’s detailed description and careful analysis of these endeavors make for some of the most fascinating parts of the book. Tank production involved a different set of challenges due to a lack of standardization that could teach the automakers much about the design and manufacture of armored vehicles, leaving the task of developing basic designs and production techniques to the US Army Ordnance Department, locomotive manufacturers, and the Detroit Tank Arsenal managed by Chrysler. Though tanks suffered from poor designs and the lack of standardization that left American Shermans outgunned by German Tigers, the sheer volume of American tank production, more than 88,000 units, enabled American and British forces to achieve important successes on the battlefield. In contrast to tanks, jeeps and trucks shared many technical characteristics with civilian automobiles and involved similar production techniques, making it possible for the carmakers to mobilize their extant capabilities to provide the American and British armies with a degree of 126 The Michigan Historical Review mobility unparalleled in the history of warfare. Supported by the US Army Quartermaster Corps, which emphasized standardization far more than the Ordnance Department, Ford, Chrysler’s Dodge Division, General Motors, Studebaker, and other suppliers manufactured more than 2.4 million trucks. By virtue of the fact that the automobile industry was anchored in Detroit, Arsenal of Democracy devotes most of its attention to wartime Michigan, but connections to broader national developments are evident throughout the book. Moreover, the conclusion includes illuminating comparisons with German and Japanese industrial mobilization that highlight America’s advantages in terms of worker productivity and government-industry collaboration. In addition to anyone interested in the history of industrial Michigan, this study should appeal to historians of technology, business, and the US war economy who have long waited for a comprehensive portrait of the automobile industry in World War II. Arsenal of Democracy nicely complements classic studies of other wartime industries, notably Irving Holley’s Buying Aircraft: Material Procurement for the Army Air Forces (1964) and Frederic Lane’s Ships for Victory: A History of Shipbuilding under the US Maritime Commission in World War II (1951). Thomas Heinrich Baruch College, City University of New York Charles K. Hyde. Images from the Arsenal of Democracy. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2014. Index. Photographs. Cloth, $39.99. In this companion piece for Arsenal of Democracy, Hyde has collected hundreds of photographs taken during the war by the Automotive Council for War Production. These photos, and Hyde’s accompanying captions, chronicle the wartime production process from the beginning, with massive modification of the auto assembly lines, to the end, with such images as the last B-24 to roll out of Ford’s Willow Run plant. These visually stunning black and white photos show not only the scope of production—the thousands of tanks...