Freedom's Forge: How American Business Built the Arsenal of Democracy That Won World War II

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Freedom's Forge: How American Business Built the Arsenal of Democracy That Won World War II

4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 · rating details · 116 ratings · 36 reviews

Remarkable as it may seem today, there once was a time when the president of the United States could pick up the phone and ask the president of General Motors to resign his position and take the reins of a great national enterprise. And the CEO would oblige, no questions asked, because it was his patriotic duty.

In Freedom’s Forge, bestselling author Arthur Herman takes u...more Remarkable as it may seem today, there once was a time when the president of the United States could pick up the phone and ask the president of General Motors to resign his position and take the reins of a great national enterprise. And the CEO would oblige, no questions asked, because it was his patriotic duty.

In Freedom’s Forge, bestselling author Arthur Herman takes us back to that time, revealing how two extraordinary American businessmen—automobile magnate William Knudsen and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser—helped 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.

“Knudsen? I want to see you in Washington. I want you to work on some production matters.” With those words, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enlisted “Big Bill” Knudsen, a Danish immigrant who had risen through the ranks of the auto industry to become president of General Motors, to drop his plans for market domination and join the U.S. Army. Commissioned a lieutenant general, Knudsen assembled a crack team of industrial innovators, persuading them one by one to leave their lucrative private sector positions and join him in Washington, D.C. Dubbed the “dollar-a-year men,” these dedicated patriots quickly took charge of America’s moribund war production effort.

Henry J. Kaiser was a maverick California industrialist famed for his innovative business techniques and his can-do management style. He, too, joined the cause. His Liberty ships became World War II icons—and the Kaiser name became so admired that FDR briefly considered making him his vice president in 1944. Together, Knudsen and Kaiser created a wartime production behemoth. Drafting top talent from companies like Chrysler, Republic Steel, Boeing, Lockheed, GE, and Frigidaire, they turned auto plants into aircraft factories and civilian assembly lines into fountains of munitions, giving Americans fighting in Europe and Asia the tools they needed to defeat the Axis. In four short years they transformed America’s army from a hollow shell into a truly global force, laying the foundations for a new industrial America—and for the country’s rise as an economic as well as military superpower.

Featuring behind-the-scenes portraits of FDR, George Marshall, Henry Stimson, Harry Hopkins, Jimmy Doolittle, and Curtis LeMay, as well as scores of largely forgotten heroes and heroines of the wartime industrial effort, Freedom’s Forge is the American story writ large. It vividly re-creates American industry’s finest hour, when the nation’s business elites put aside their pursuit of profits and set about saving the world.(less)

Hardcover, 432 pages

Published May 8th 2012 by Random House Publishing Group (first published January 1st 2012)

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Jul 26, 2012 Aminah Yaquin rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is startling in its evocation of the recognition of executive authority as measured not by status and money, but by the randomness of genius as it is developed in individuals whose talents and prodigious skills are honed by doing, and their ranks in a company earned, not purchased.

Vestiges of the excitement of shared collective enterprise and pride in work, were still extant when I was young,and made even factory work very appealing...something Total Quality Management approached, but...more

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Denis Farley It was a favorite topic of my father's, a Army-Air Corps pilot in that era. The one thing that troubles me is the need for armed conflict to make this...more
Jul 07, 2012 09:19pm

Aminah Yaquin Yes, Denis, to what you said above...and as your Dad was a pilot, one of the few AND the immensely brave, it would be good reading.

In fact the basic...more
Jul 09, 2012 05:06am

Nov 08, 2012 Marks54 rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a history of the effort to mobilize war production in the US in WWII - a biography of the "arsenal of democracy". This is a massive story that is essential in understanding the link between the US during the great depression and the post-war economic boom. The book is organized around the wartime biographies of two men - William Knudsen of General Motors and Henry Kaiser, of Kaiser Industries Fame. Both men played key roles in war mobilization - Knudsen by laying the initial foundations...more This is a history of the effort to mobilize war production in the US in WWII - a biography of the "arsenal of democracy". This is a massive story that is essential in understanding the link between the US during the great depression and the post-war economic boom. The book is organized around the wartime biographies of two men - William Knudsen of General Motors and Henry Kaiser, of Kaiser Industries Fame. Both men played key roles in war mobilization - Knudsen by laying the initial foundations for the involvement of large industrial firms in war mobilization and Kaiser through his development of Liberty Ships and numerous other project in shipbuilding and infrastructure development. These men and their colleagues were amazing people who did wonderful achievements that materially contributed to winning the war. The story is an important one that is generally told in bits and pieces in other industries. The book is well written and moves well.

Apart from the large number of interesting bits of history throughout the book, the story itself is well told and shows much thought. For example, the two lead characters, Kaiser and Knudsen, distinguished themselves in different types of industrial production. Knudsen was the star of GM who led his Chevy division past Ford. He was the master of industrial mass production and this figured greatly in the great wartime factors to produce tanks, trucks, and bombers, to name only a few products. Kaiser, on the other hand, was the master of project work. He initially gained his fame as the leader of the six company coalition behind the Hoover Dam and he was essential at developing US shipyeards to produce merchant ships and even new navy warships (such as his mini aircraft carrier). If one follows business history, this distinction between mass production and projects is fundamental and it is reasonable to look at industrial accomplishments during WWII this way. This climax of the book is -- no surprise -- the combination of the super plane (the B29) and the Atomic Bomb, the super weapon from the Manhattan Project -- that led to Japan's surrender. It is a fitting combination of project work and mass production. The book's discussion of subcontracting networks is also well done and informative.

One annoying aspect of the book is its efforts to cloth the story in the ideological take of war mobilization as the triumph of free market capitalism -- as opposed to the inept bureaucrats of the New Deal and the greedy and unpatriotic strikes of the unions. While the organization and efficiency of the industrial firms contributed hugely to allied success, this was very clearly a monumental exercise of business-government cooperation. While I agree that the price system was important in assuring an efficient result, this was not what we would commonly call free market or entrepreneurial capitalism (except with the subcontractors). Why? First, the prime industries were large and oligopolistic to start with. The major players generally knew each other and could cooperate with each other - which a market observer would call more collusive than competitive. More importantly, the government picked up the risk in this contracts, so the firms got to benefit from government investment and volume while being able to recoup their costs and secure a fixed fee for a profit -- these are the "cost-plus" contracts mentioned early in the story. If the government picks up the investment tab and covers the profit risk, an effort may benefit from a firm's expertise, but this is not the "free market". The Keynesian view that wartime spending was the stimulus plan that finally got the US out of the depression is more on target. A related point on this concerns the unions, which are considered negatively in the book. If firms are getting their profits guaranteed, why fault the unions for trying to do the same? The free market interpretation sounds a bit like an effort at revisionist history. It is not accurate. More importantly, it is not necessary. The story is interesting on its own terms and the ideology detracts from the fundamental value of the book and the author's many strong points. (less)

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Feb 14, 2013 Brenton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Arthur Herman has written a magnificent tribute to American capitalism, and to the men who pioneered the concept of mass production. This is hardly an arid history of engineering, but a mind-boggling, fast-paced narrative of the remarkable men who built the ships, planes, and armaments that transformed a woefully inadequate American military into a technological juggernaut that rolled back the axis powers on two continents.

At the outbreak of World War II, America’s military ranked eighteenth in...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Amber rated it 1 of 5 stars

I finish the vast majority of books I start (especially non-fiction), and the ones I don't, it's usually because the topic doesn't interest me. In this case, however, I find the topic--the role of American business in World War II--extremely interesting; I just couldn't handle the slanted way it was presented. And I have never before posted a review for a book I didn't finish, but in this case felt like I had a good enough understanding of its flaws to make a reasonable comment.

The key businessm...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Mal Warwick rated it 4 of 5 stars

The mind-boggling story of how America rearmed for World War II

Since I was born six months before the U.S. entry into World War II, I grew up familiar with a long list of names — little-heard now, more than half a century later — that were associated with the U.S. role in the war that seized hold of Planet Earth for a half-dozen years and set America’s course as a superpower for the balance of the 20th Century. Jimmy Doolittle, Henry Kaiser, George Marshall, Hap Arnold, Curtis LeMay, Paul Tibbet...more The mind-boggling story of how America rearmed for World War II

Since I was born six months before the U.S. entry into World War II, I grew up familiar with a long list of names — little-heard now, more than half a century later — that were associated with the U.S. role in the war that seized hold of Planet Earth for a half-dozen years and set America’s course as a superpower for the balance of the 20th Century. Jimmy Doolittle, Henry Kaiser, George Marshall, Hap Arnold, Curtis LeMay, Paul Tibbetts, and a host of others — every one of whom figures in the epic story so skillfully told in Freedom’s Forge.

As the book’s subtitle suggests, Freedom’s Forge focuses on the role that America’s business community, and especially Big Business, played in the monumental effort that resulted in the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan just months apart in 1945. Two extraordinary men — William S. Knudsen and Henry Kaiser — are the stars of this story, business impresarios who marshaled the stupendous numbers of men and women and the unprecedented mountains of raw materials that supplied the U.S. and its Allies with the weapons of war.

Nothing since — not the Apollo moon landings, not the war in Vietnam, not even America’s protracted wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East — has come even remotely close to the magnitude of World War II. Over the five-year period from July 1940, when the U.S. began to rearm, until August 1945, when Japan surrendered, “America’s shipyards had launched 141 aircraft carriers, eight battleships, 807 cruisers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts, 203 submarines, and . . . almost 52 million tons of merchant shipping. Its factories turned out 88,410 tanks and self-propelled guns, 257,000 artillery pieces, 2.4 million trucks, 2.6 million machine guns — and 41 billion rounds of ammunition. As for aircraft, the United States had produced 324,750, averaging 170 a day since 1942.”

Can the human mind today even comprehend what must have been involved in manufacturing 300,000 airplanes and 100 aircraft carriers?

This staggering output of weapons came as a result of a profound transformation of the American economy, engineered in significant part by Bill Knudsen and Henry Kaiser. The two could hardly have been more different, and they didn’t like each other. Knudsen was a modest and unassuming Danish immigrant who worked closely with Henry Ford on the Model T and later built and ran General Motors into the world’s largest industrial corporation, dwarfing Ford’s output. Kaiser, a West Coast construction magnate who was the son of German immigrants, was flashy, outgoing, and immoderately persuasive — a model of self-promotion. Together with a host of others in and out of government, these two men led the conversion of the U.S. economy to unparalleled heights as the “arsenal of freedom.” Nonetheless, “[i]n 1945 Americans ate more meat, bought more shoes and gasoline, and used more electricity than they had before Hitler invaded France.”

Though I thoroughly enjoyed reading Freedom’s Forge, there was one discordant note. Author Arthur Herman, a free-market conservative who wrote this book as a visiting scholar at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, advanced a political message throughout. That message could be summed up as “FDR, the New Deal, labor unions — bad. Business, businessmen, military leaders — good.” He could hardly have been more blatant. But the man writes well, and he did a stellar job of telling this unimaginably complex story between the covers of a single volume.

In the conclusion, Herman quotes Josef Stalin when he first met at Tehran with Roosevelt and Churchill in 1943: he “raised his glass in a toast ‘to American production, without which this war would have been lost.’” There could be no higher praise for capitalism, coming as it did from the dictator of the Communist Soviet Union.

From www.malwarwickonbooks.com (less)

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Aug 06, 2012 Christopher rated it 4 of 5 stars

It claims to be about the US industrial effort in the Second World War, but it's not so much a general overview of that as a personalized story of some of the industrialists who played a key role in organizing the effort. You don't get much sense of the overall meaning of what's going on (e.g., Lend Lease turns up a little, but if you didn't already know what it means, you wouldn't get much enlightenment; or there's little sense of how it was determined how much to make of what). There also isn'...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Cindy Choi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

A very interesting read about some key businessmen and how they mobilized manufacturing production for World War II. Ironically, it seems that some think this is a lesson in the power of capitalism. When contrasted with communism, Nazi Germany certainly did not have a prayer of competing.

However, it is, most obviously, a lesson in the power of government spending on a vast scale. And not just the U.S. government, the British and Japanese governments too. Basically, three governments bought gazi...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Adam Yoshida rated it 5 of 5 stars

In Freedom's Forge, Arthur Herman does something that I didn't think that anyone could: he teaches something that (for me, at least) is genuinely new, relevant, and interesting about the Second World War.

This book follows a handful of American industrialists - from Henry Kaiser, who led the construction of the Liberty Ships that carried vital war materiel to to Bill Knudsen, a Danish immigrant and former General Motors executive who led the industrial mobilization effort in the opening years of...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Michael Meder rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book should be *REQUIRED* reading at all Business Schools, in all Teacher Education degree programs, and by anyone who Votes. Ever heard of William Knudsen? No, then this is an indispensable wealth of historical knowledge that, as a product of the public school system, I never knew before. He should be right up there with Henry Ford, Alfred P. Sloan, Fred Hayek, and Frederick Winslow Taylor. The “Arsenal of Democracy”, which supplied arms and munitions to *all* of the Allies in World War II...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Russell Boekenkroeger rated it 4 of 5 stars

The intersection and partnership of business and government in conducting WW II is explicated very well by Herman. The characterization demonstrates how the balance between success and failure is always thin; the inherent friction among business leaders, politicians and military thinking producing a workable chemistry when personally the leaders had little in common. Some messages here for successful approaches to restoring US economy, rebuilding education and getting businesses out of the comfo...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Jared Bryson rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don’t know how you make industrial production during the 1940s exciting and patriotic, but Arthur Herman does it. He champions the production hero’s of the 1940s who helped produce the economic juggernaut that was the United States. He details the battles between the free market business community and the progressive/labor forces as well. An exceptional, eye-opening book on both business and history. A look at WWII that I’ve never seen before. Exciting.

I could go on and on. If you like busines...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars

An excellent description of how key businesses and business leaders radically shifted and increased American manufacturing to meed the demands of WWII - - how did the industry gear up to build hundreds of thousands of aircraft, thousands of ships, vehicles of all types, and so on.

Don't look too strongly at the references - although many citations, most are really secondary sources. Oh, and the book did need an editor - really, why put so much work into a narrative, but leave it so well populated...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Don rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

I read enough books about World War II to fill an impressive library, but this is one aspect that I have not read about before. The author tells a great story. For example, the British needed more engines for their Spitfire fighters than they could produced. The Packer automobile company volunteered to make them. The engine was one of the best designed in the world. To make sure the top secret plans got to America safely, the British delivered them with a battleship! In England the engines were...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Gunnar rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

Herman gives the story behind the mobilization of American industry in World War II the attention it deserves. I knew, in vague terms, that the country made a remarkable transformation from the depths of the Depression to the world's most productive country in just a few short years. What I didn't understand, and Herman so skillfully illustrated, was that this transformation was the result of a kind of dance between industry, which was both patriotic and profiteering, and government, which was i...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Brian Williams rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a detailed account of the US preparation for war with Germany and Japan, and how the amazing production of war material was accomplished between 1940 and 1945. The author highlights the roles of William Knudsen and Henry Kaiser in this activity. The message is that America's private sector can do much more in such endeavours than the public sector, which tends to be hidebound, parochial and adverse to change ways of doing things. Organized labour is also a barrier. Putting aside this poi...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Lindsey rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting side of the war effort that I've certainly seen mentioned, but I've never gone this far in-depth. It was a quick read because it was well-written and followed the human side of the story more than getting bogged down in numbers. However, it did glorify two men (Kaiser and Knudsen) while not fully recognizing the contributions of others. Overall, worth reading, but as I didn't know much on the subject before I started reading this, I'm taking his lofty praise of these two...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Sher rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm still not sure why I enjoyed this book so much. I was fascinated by it, while at the same time wondered if I were the only person in the world who was. The premise of this book is a review of all the events that helped ready America to enter WWII with the power that would soon end it. In the meantime, so many new inventions, technologies and ideas were put into play that America emerged from the war as the world leader it was for so many years. This part was compelling to me, but so were the...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Claudia rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a brilliant book--I first heard about it at the opening of the New York exhibit at the NY Historical Society...Ed Koch was the keynote speaker, himself a seasoned WWII veteran and still sharp as ever in his 90s. If you have an interest in war history and how we fortuitously changed our military strategy to avoid invasion from the Germans on our own soil, this is the book...

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Nov 11, 2012 Doug Haskin rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very interesting history of a much-overlooked aspect of WWII: how U.S. businesses converted themselves into the "Arsenal of Democracy" and set the stage for the Allies' victory.

Particularly relevant now, as our country struggles to find our new place in the world order, and comes to realize that we are no longer the super-power and super-economy of the world.

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Dec 24, 2012 Daniel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Very fascinating read on how American Business was primarily responsible for the war materials being produced that helped the Allies to victory over the Axis, covers the how's, why's and both sides of management vs. labor vs./with the government. Pretty heavy read close to textbook like but if you are interested in the subject it goes by really quick!

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Apr 08, 2013 Desiree rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm not the biggest fan of this book. I did feel as though the author of the book set out to make a point that big businesses were all great, powerful and interested in the common good and I believe the book was written from that point of view, which bothered me a bit.

I kept putting this book aside, then returning to it, determined just to finish the darn thing. That's really what got me through. I thought it was interesting to learn some of the history, but I did feel as though the story was t...more

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May 27, 2012 Oldesq rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

A fascinating and well told story of two industrialists who had the foresight and stepped up to the plate to prepare America for war before December of 1941. Knudsen and Kaiser were mavericks who knew how to harness the power of the American people.

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May 19, 2012 Aneil rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great book so far. It's a page-turner about historical figures that until have faded into the background. Another great example of the "ordinary people who became extraordinary leaders" who built America and then helped save it fascism.

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May 06, 2013 Rae rated it 4 of 5 stars

Written by one of my favorite professors at George Mason. I read it for my Progressive Book Club. Very interesting story of how private industry mobilized for production before WWII. A part of history that is overlooked.

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Nov 27, 2012 Stan rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very interesting look at American industrial capability and management in the pre-WWII and WWII years. Anyone who thinks the Government ran the whole show should read this and discover the truth about how both Government and private business contributed to this extraordinary story.

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Jan 03, 2013 Annmarie marked it as to-read

Recommended by my dad:
"It gave a lot of information I had never heard before (I was only 4 years old at the time). It gives me hope for America, considering the sad shape we're in now."

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Oct 01, 2012 Aaron Mcqueen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-war-2-history, biography

Really enjoyable read but unfortunately definitly has a pro big business agenda. It has me looking do more material on the subject.

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Aug 27, 2012 Eileen rated it 5 of 5 stars

I rated this very high because it tells an amazing story that would be hard to believe if it wasn't historical fact. The United States marshalled its manufacturing forces to equip over 10M American service men and women and allies like England and Russia to defeat the Axis powers in WW2. The numbers and feats of engineering are staggering. A must read for history and WW2 buffs. My only problem with the book is its clearly pro-manufacturing stance; The author takes shots whenever possible at the...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Todd rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well researched, very interesting. Great narrative and a very fast read. I really enjoyed this.

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Nov 27, 2012 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It's history of WWII and American business.

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