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Ellis W Hawley, Arsenal of World War II: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1940–1945, Journal of American History, Volume 93, Issue 2, September 2006, Pages 579–580, https://doi.org/10.2307/4486346
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Extract
Arsenal of World War II is the fourth installment of Paul A. C. Koistinen's projected fivevolume series on the “political economy of American warfare.” As in previous volumes, he is interested in how mobilization has been shaped by such factors as economic maturity, military characteristics, and governmental capacities. But unlike previous volumes, this book focuses on a period of only five years and seeks not only to continue his general analysis but also to provide the first comprehensive history of World War II mobilization since the 1940s. As its grand theme, Arsenal of World War II aims to show that the period was historically pivotal in that it left us with a power structure that has shaped the politics and public policy of the United States ever since.
Structurally, the book consists of three unequal parts, covering the successive periods of the National Defense Advisory Commission, the Office of Production Management, and the War Production Board (wpb). Those agencies and their efforts to meet America's temporary need for a higher civil service constitute Koistinen's central story. But for each period he also examines the work of the War and Navy departments in deploying a rival apparatus and eventually making it part of the larger structure. In separate chapters, he traces the emergence of collateral agencies to handle special sectors and the accompanying efforts to achieve greater overall coordination. In addition, New Deal reformers and planners figure prominently in parts of his story, notably in helping to win the conversion battles of 1942 and to install basic controls. Yet ironically, he notes, these successes facilitated the rise of an industrial-military alliance that thwarted reformist initiatives in 1944 and 1945 and became a major obstacle to postwar reform.
