Freedom's Forge - eBook

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Forge reveals how two extraordinary American businessmenGeneral Motors automobile magnate William Big Bill Knudsen and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiserhelped corral, cajole, and inspire business leaders across the country to mobilize the arsenal of democracy that propelled the Allies to victory in World War II. Drafting top talent from companies like Chrysler, Republic Steel, Boeing, Lockheed, GE, and Frigidaire, Knudsen and Kaiser turned auto plants into aircraft factories and civilian assembly lines into fountains of munitions. In four short years they transformed Americas army from a hollow shell into a truly global force, laying the foundations for the countrys rise as an economic as well as military superpower. Freedoms Forge vividly re-creates American industrys finest hour, when the nations business elites put aside their pursuit of profits and set about saving the world.Praise for Freedoms ForgeA rarely told industrial saga, rich with particulars of the growing pains and eventual triumphs of American industry . . . Arthur Herman has set out to right an injustice: the loss, down historys memory hole, of the epic achievements of American business in helping the United States and its allies win World War II.The New York Times Book ReviewMagnificent . . . Its not often that a historian comes up with a fresh approach to an absolutely critical element of the Allied victory in World War II, but Pulitzer finalist Herman . . . has done just that.Kirkus Reviews (starred review)A compulsively readable tribute to the miracle of mass production. Publishers WeeklyThe production statistics cited by Mr. Herman . . . astound.The Economist[A] fantastic book.ForbesFreedoms Forge is the story of how the ingenuity and energy of the American private sector was turned loose to equip the finest military force on the face of the earth. In an era of gathering threats and shrinking defense budgets, it is a timely lesson told by one of the great historians of our time.Donald Rumsfeld