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 reveals 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 mobilise the arsenal of democracy that propelled the Allies to victory in World War II. Commissioned a lieutenant general, Knudsen assembled a crack team of industrial innovators — the “dollar-a-year men” — who quickly took charge of America’s moribund war production effort. Kaiser’s Liberty ships became World War II icons, and his name became so admired that FDR briefly considered making him his vice president in 1944. Together, Knudsen and Kaiser drafted top talent from Chrysler, Republic Steel, Boeing, Lockheed, GE, and Frigidaire, turning 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 a new industrial America and its rise as an economic and military superpower. Featuring behind-the-scenes portraits of FDR, George Marshall, Henry Stimson, Harry Hopkins, Jimmy Doolittle, and Curtis LeMay, Freedom’s Forge is the American story writ large — vividly re-creating American industry’s finest hour, when the nation’s business elites put aside their pursuit of profits and set about saving the world. “A rambunctious book that is itself alive with the animal spirits of the marketplace.” — The Wall Street Journal “Magnificent … a fresh approach to an absolutely critical element of the Allied victory in World War II.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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