A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America for World War II
by Maury Klein | History | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 1596916079 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 1596916079 Global Overview for this book
Registered by 
ResQgeek
of Alexandria, Virginia USA on 1/6/2016
This book is in a Controlled Release!
ResQgeek of Alexandria, Virginia USA on 1/6/2016 This book is in a Controlled Release!
1 journaler for this copy...
A wish list book received as a birthday gift. I don't think I realized just how thick this book was when I added it to my wish list...
Whew! That took no small effort to plow through. This book, with 775 pages of text (and more than 200 additional pages of notes, bibliography, and index), is an incredibly detailed and thorough overview of the mobilization of the U.S. economy to support the Allied effort during WWII. For anyone who wants a better understanding of what it took to produce the so-called "Arsenal of Democracy", this book will certainly provide it.
However, in its detail, it becomes a bit of a chore to read. While some may find the descriptions of the political in-fighting in the Roosevelt administration interesting or entertaining, they were just tedious for me, and I much preferred to parts of the book that detailed the more local experiences at the factories, mines, and farms, and the stories of the individuals who actually did the work of producing what the nation needed. These stories highlighted the struggles involved in converting an economy that was still struggling to recover from the depression into a powerhouse production engine for war in ways that the descriptions of the policy struggles didn't. Together, they provided an eye-opening understanding of just how difficult it was to balance all the demands placed upon the economy during the war.
While I understood that the war had induced a huge migration as people moved to find work in war production, I had never considered the impact of that migration on the local economies that had to absorb a huge influx of new residents. While these workers may have been making more money than ever before, they struggled to find adequate living conditions. This was one among many other details about how the war impacted the "home front" that I had never before considered, and which were highlighted in this text.
This book should appeal to a wide ranges of interests, from those who are interested in the economic impacts, to those who find the social upheavals fascinating and others who are intrigued by politics.
However, in its detail, it becomes a bit of a chore to read. While some may find the descriptions of the political in-fighting in the Roosevelt administration interesting or entertaining, they were just tedious for me, and I much preferred to parts of the book that detailed the more local experiences at the factories, mines, and farms, and the stories of the individuals who actually did the work of producing what the nation needed. These stories highlighted the struggles involved in converting an economy that was still struggling to recover from the depression into a powerhouse production engine for war in ways that the descriptions of the policy struggles didn't. Together, they provided an eye-opening understanding of just how difficult it was to balance all the demands placed upon the economy during the war.
While I understood that the war had induced a huge migration as people moved to find work in war production, I had never considered the impact of that migration on the local economies that had to absorb a huge influx of new residents. While these workers may have been making more money than ever before, they struggled to find adequate living conditions. This was one among many other details about how the war impacted the "home front" that I had never before considered, and which were highlighted in this text.
This book should appeal to a wide ranges of interests, from those who are interested in the economic impacts, to those who find the social upheavals fascinating and others who are intrigued by politics.
I passed this along to another local BC member at the annual BC-in-DC holiday gathering specifically because I thought he would appreciate it.
