The Arsenal Of Democracy. FDR, Detroit, And An Epic Quest To Arm An America At War

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: Very Good
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publisher Place: New York
Publisher Year: 2014
Edition: First Edition

Description: 364 pages. Ex-Library. (only one small stamp on inside page). Book and Jacket are both in Very good condition throughout.

Publishers Description: In 1941, as Hitlers threat loomed ever larger, President Roosevelt realized he needed weaponry to fight the Nazismost important, airplanesand he needed them fast. So he turned to Detroit and the auto industry for help.The Arsenal of Democracy tells the incredible story of how Detroit answered the call, centering on Henry Ford and his tortured son Edsel, who, when asked if they could deliver 50,000 airplanes, made an outrageous claim: Ford Motor Company would erect a plant that could yield a bomber an hour. Critics scoffed: Ford didnt make planes; they made simple, affordable cars. But bucking his fathers resistance, Edsel charged ahead. Ford would apply assembly-line production to the American militarys largest, fastest, most destructive bomber; they would build a plant vast in size and ambition on a plot of farmland and call it Willow Run; they would bring in tens of thousands of workers from across the country, transforming Detroit, almost overnight, from Motor City to the great arsenal of democracy. And eventually they would help the Allies win the war.Drawing on exhaustive research from the Ford Archives, the National Archives, and the FDR Library, A. J. Baime has crafted an enthralling, character-driven narrative of American innovation that has never been fully told, leaving readers with a vivid new portrait of Americaand Detroitduring the war.

ISBN: 9780547719283