Description

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2023

In this epic and definitive history of the American home front during World War II New York Times bestselling historian Craig Nelson reveals how FDR won the support of a nation antagonistic to war in Europe and pushed both government and industry to build the arsenal of democracythe secret weapon that won the war

In 1938 the United States was so politically isolationist and pacifist that its defense forces were smaller than Portugals That same year Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered the federal government to spark a dramatic expansion in domestic airplane production and this minor effortthree years before the attack on Pearl Harborwould in time become what Roosevelt called the arsenal of democracy the fullthrottle unleashing of American enterprise and ingenuity that was the secret weapon for victory in World War II Signaled by Roosevelts public fight with Lindberghknown as the Great Debatevictory at land sea and air across the globe began at home

In this richly detailed highly readable account of presidential leadership in perilous times New York Journal of Books Craig Nelson traces how under FDR the United States rose from poverty and solitude to defeat the greatest evils of the 20th century By transforming what Americans thought they could achieve FDRs efforts ended the Great Depression conquered the fascists of Germany Italy and Japan birthed Americas middleclass affluence and consumer society led to jet engines computers radar the militaryindustrial complex Big Science and nuclear weapons triggered a global economic boom and turned the US military into a worldwide titanwith America the undisputed leader of world affairs While the arsenal of democracy has come to mean this miracle of American industry when Roosevelt said it he meant the miracle of the American people

Revealing an era when Detroit was Silicon Valley Ford was Apple and Sears Roebuck was Amazon while filled with reflections on our own time V Is for Victory draws on five years of research to create a powerful and essential narrative largely overlooked in conventional histories of the war but which in Nelsons skilled authoritative hands becomes an illuminating and important work destined to become an American history classic