Arthur Herman. (2012). Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II. Random House Publishing Group.

Arthur Herman. 2012. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II. Random House Publishing Group.

Arthur Herman, Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II. Random House Publishing Group, 2012.

Arthur Herman. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II. Random House Publishing Group, 2012.

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1. • value: World War II
2. • value: War
3. • value: Historical
4. • value: Business
5. • value: Industry
6. • value: culture
7. • value: money
8. • value: work
9. • value: society
10. • value: Homefront
11. • value: american history
12. • value: Social Studies
13. • value: Military
14. • value: Social History
15. • value: WWII
16. • value: Inspirational
17. • value: inspiration
18. • value: Wealth
19. • value: management
20. • value: communication
21. • value: History
22. • value: World War 2
23. • value: cultural history
24. • value: 20th century History
25. • value: social science
26. • value: Economics
27. • value: nonfiction books
28. • value: business books
29. • value: history books
30. • value: world war ii history
31. • value: management books
32. • value: gifts for history buffs
33. • value: world war 2 books
34. • value: History book
35. • value: economics books
36. • value: books about business
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creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Herman, Arthur
   • bioText: Arthur Herman, visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author of How the Scots Invented the Modern World, which has sold more than half a million copies worldwide. His most recent work, Gandhi & Churchill, was the 2009 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.
   • name: Arthur Herman

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title

Freedom's Forge

fullDescription

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SELECTED BY THE ECONOMIST AS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
“A rambunctious book that is itself alive with the animal spirits of the marketplace.”—The Wall Street Journal
Freedom’s Forge reveals how two extraordinary American businessmen—General Motors automobile magnate  William “Big Bill” 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. 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 America’s army from a hollow shell into a truly global force, laying the foundations for the country’s rise as an economic as well as military superpower. Freedom’s Forge 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.
Praise for Freedom’s Forge
“A 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 history’s 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 Review

“Magnificent . . . It’s 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 Weekly

“The production statistics cited by Mr. Herman . . . astound.”—The Economist

“[A] fantastic book.”—Forbes

“Freedom’s 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

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: The Wall Street Journal
   • content: "A rambunctious book that is itself alive with the animal spirits of the marketplace."
2. • premium: False
   • source: The New York Times Book Review
   • content: "A 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 history's memory hole, of the epic achievements of American business in helping the United States and its allies win World War II."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
   • content: "Magnificent . . . It's 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."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly
   • content: "A compulsively readable tribute to 'the miracle of mass production.' "
5. • premium: False
   • source: The Economist
   • content: "The production statistics cited by Mr. Herman . . . astound."
6. • premium: False
   • source: Forbes
   • content: "[A] fantastic book."
7. • premium: False
   • source: Donald Rumsfeld
   • content: "Freedom's 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."
8. • premium: False
   • source: Carlo D'Este, author of Patton: A Genius for War
   • content: "World War II could not have been won without the vital support and innovation of American industry. Arthur Herman's engrossing and superbly researched account of how this came about, and the two men primarily responsible for orchestrating it, is one of the last great, untold stories of the war."
9. • premium: False
   • source: Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War
   • content: "It takes a writer of Arthur Herman's caliber to make a story essentially based on industrial production exciting, but this book is a truly thrilling story of the contribution made by American business to the destruction of Fascism. With America producing two-thirds of the Allies' weapons in World War II, the contribution of those who played a vital part in winning the war, yet who never once donned a uniform, has been downplayed or ignored for long enough. Here is their story, with new heroes to admire--such as William Knudsen and Henry Kaiser--who personified the can-do spirit of those stirring times."
10. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      March 19, 2012
      Herman (How the Scots Invented the Modern World) tells the epic story of the American businessmen who, in only a few years, helped America become the largest military power in history. These include William Knudsen, a Danish immigrant who turned General Motors into “the largest industrial corporation in the world,” and industrialist Henry Kaiser, the “master builder” responsible for infrastructure projects throughout the country. In 1940, Roosevelt personally called upon Knudsen to oversee the assignment of contracts worth billions of dollars to produce the guns, tanks, planes, and other equipment needed for battle. Eschewing centralization in favor of free-market incentives, Knudsen directed the forging of “‘the arsenal of democracy,’” as factories around the nation converted to wartime production. Kaiser, meanwhile, presided over the creation of a new navy, America’s “Liberty ships,” which Churchill called “the foundation of all our hopes.” At times, the book falls into not-so-subtle hagiography of American capitalists, who are portrayed as selfless patriots who succeed despite the efforts of opportunistic labor organizations and big government New Dealers hostile to the free market. However, Herman has a knack for generating both suspense and patriotic self-congratulation. A cross between Ayn Rand, Herman Wouk, and the Wall Street Journal, the book is a compulsively readable tribute to “the miracle of mass production.” Agent: Glen Hartley, Writers Representatives.

11. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from April 15, 2012
      It's 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 (Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age, 2009, etc.) has done just that. The author argues powerfully against the conventional wisdom that America's rearmament took place under the guidance of a competent federal government that brought business and labor together for the country's defense. To the dismay of New Dealers who had hoped to use the war to bring business under government control, the production of the flood of war materiel that drowned the Axis was achieved by the voluntary cooperation of businesses driven as much by the profit motive as by patriotism, solving problems through their own ingenuity rather than waiting for government directives. The physical and organizational challenges were overwhelming. The production of sufficient familiar armaments required expanding existing moribund plants and constructing new ones, then manufacturing new machine tools and organizing their use to maximize efficiency. Doing the same for enormously complex new weapons, in particular the B-29 bomber with 40,000 different parts made by 1,400 subcontractors, was an even more staggering task, exacerbated by materials shortages and recalcitrant labor unions. A story resting on the statistics of industrial production runs a constant risk of lapsing into tedium, but Herman's account never falters. He carries it off in engaging style by centering this sweeping narrative on the efforts of two colorful business leaders, Henry Kaiser and William Knudsen, who led the struggle to produce ships, planes and arms for Britain and then for America in a war that many had persisted in believing wasn't coming. A magnificent, controversial re-examination of the role of American business in winning WWII.

      COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

12. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      February 1, 2012
      

      Pulitzer Prize finalist for Ghandi & Churchill, Herman here presents businessmen as the good guys, showing how two in particular--Danish immigrant William Knudsen and shipbuilding magnate Henry Kaiser--pummeled businesses around the country to build what was needed for the war effort. The result? Service to democracy and the creation of the military-industrial complex. Not just for history fans.

      Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

13. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      April 15, 2012
      A narrative of America's industrial mobilization for WWII, Herman's history heroizes two business executives at the center of affairs, Henry Kaiser, builder of the Liberty ships, and William Knudsen, president of General Motors. While Kaiser's hyperkinetic flamboyance lingers in the recognition his name still provokes in WWII readers, the more effacing Knudsen, Herman makes clear, was the critical character. An expert in organizing assembly lines, Knudsen was tapped by FDR in 1940 to convert consumer into military production, which he initiated through private enterprises. New Dealers who wanted the government, not big business, to direct mobilization nominally won in early 1942 by ousting Knudsen and establishing the War Production Board. But Knudsen's profit-motive template had momentum and prevailed, as Herman dramatizes in the manufacturing setups for such weapons as the B-24 and B-29 bombers, Sherman tanks, and aircraft carriers. What with the millions of workers needed to build them, Rosie the Riveter included, swarming factory floor and shipyard, Herman's story will resonate with readers whose parents and grandparents won the war with a welding torch.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

14. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      June 15, 2012
      

      What is covered in most textbooks in a page--the crucial role of American industry in winning World War II--takes up the entirety of Herman's (Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age) fascinating volume. As he has in past books, Herman here approaches a chapter of history by investigating the personalities who shaped it. He brings to life William Knudsen of General Motors and shipbuilder Henry J. Kiser via their interactions with FDR. It would be easy to overwhelm readers with recountings of the extraordinary number of planes, ships, or tanks produced. However, Herman will keep his audience thoroughly engaged as the war unfolds from the perspective of U.S. industry and its regulators. At a time when Wall Street is often pitted against Main Street, readers will be surprised by the cooperative relations forged between government and industry during World War II. VERDICT Recommended for the invaluable insights regarding how government administrators and industry leaders worked together to produce a winning arsenal. Economists and general readers alike will benefit from its historical perspective.--Jekabs Bikis, Dallas Baptist Univ., TX

      Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SELECTED BY THE ECONOMIST AS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
“A rambunctious book that is itself alive with the animal spirits of the marketplace.”—The Wall Street Journal
Freedom’s Forge reveals how two extraordinary American businessmen—General Motors automobile magnate  William “Big Bill” 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. 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 America’s army from a hollow shell into a truly global force,...

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Freedoms Forge How American Business Produced Victory in World War II

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3. • code: HIS027100
   • description: History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General