[PDF] Detroit Goes To War The American Auto Industry In World War Ii eBook

Author : Charles K. Hyde
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 50,28 MB
Release : 2013-10-04
Category : History
ISBN : 0814339522

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Examines the role of the American automobile industry in producing vehicles, weapons, and other war products during World War II. Throughout World War II, Detroit's automobile manufacturers accounted for one-fifth of the dollar value of the nation's total war production, and this amazing output from "the arsenal of democracy" directly contributed to the allied victory. In fact, automobile makers achieved such production miracles that many of their methods were adopted by other defense industries, particularly the aircraft industry. In Arsenal of Democracy: The American Automobile Industry in World War II,award-winning historian Charles K. Hyde details the industry's transition to a wartime production powerhouse and some of its notable achievements along the way. Hyde examines several innovative cooperative relationships that developed between the executive branch of the federal government, U.S. military services, automobile industry leaders, auto industry suppliers, and the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union, which set up the industry to achieve production miracles. He goes on to examine the struggles and achievements of individual automakers during the war years in producing items like aircraft engines, aircraft components, and complete aircraft; tanks and other armored vehicles; jeeps, trucks, and amphibians; guns, shells, and bullets of all types; and a wide range of other weapons and war goods ranging from search lights to submarine nets and gyroscopes. Hyde also considers the important role played by previously underused workers-namely African Americans and women-in the war effort and their experiences on the line. Arsenal of Democracy includes an analysis of wartime production nationally, on the automotive industry level, by individual automakers, and at the single plant level. For this thorough history, Hyde has consulted previously overlooked records collected by the Automobile Manufacturers Association that are now housed in the National Automotive History Collection of the Detroit Public Library. Automotive historians, World War II scholars, and American history buffs will welcome the compelling look at wartime industry in Arsenal of Democracy.

Author : Michael W. R. Davis
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 132 pages
File Size : 24,18 MB
Release : 2007
Category : History
ISBN : 9780738551647

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Just as Detroit symbolizes the U.S. automobile industry, during World War II it also came to stand for all American industry's conversion from civilian goods to war material. The label "Arsenal of Democracy" was coined by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in a fireside chat radio broadcast on December 29, 1940, nearly a year before the United States formally entered the war. Here is the pictorial story of one Detroiter's unique leadership in the miraculous speed Detroit's mass-production capacity was shifted to output of tanks, trucks, guns, and airplanes to support America's victory and of the struggles of civilians on the home front.

Author : Albert J. Baime
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 389 pages
File Size : 34,67 MB
Release : 2014
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0547719280

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Chronicles Detroit's dramatic transition from an automobile manufacturing center to a highly efficient producer of World War II airplanes, citing the essential role of Edsel Ford's rebellion against his father, Henry Ford.

Author : Robert Tata
Publisher : Author House
Page : 80 pages
File Size : 38,29 MB
Release : 2013-07-08
Category : History
ISBN : 148177073X

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The author, a licensed Professional Engineer, has family roots in the Detroit area and has also been employed in an engineering capacity by all Big Three automakers; GM, Ford, & Chrysler. He has often wondered how the auto industry got its beginning in such a place as Detroit, Michigan, way off the beaten path, in an isolated glove-shaped piece of land thrust up between two lakes, where weather can be severe. Ohio and Indiana, who were also very active in the creation of the auto industry, are in the same general area of the country as Michigan and share the same climate. Why would anyone favor this three state area? One would think that other parts of the country would be more conducive to the formation of such an important part of the history of this nation. After all, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana were not members of the original 13 states and therefore have to be considered less developed territories than the original thirteen states around the turn of the 19th century when the American Gasoline-powered automobile was invented. Read how the author has searched for the answers to these somewhat perplexing questions on why Detroit became the Motor City.

Author : Charles K. Hyde
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 15,55 MB
Release : 2014-03-01
Category : History
ISBN : 0814339824

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The first comprehensive and detailed history drawn solely from the surviving photographic record of wartime Detroit, Images from the Arsenal of Democracy will be appreciated by automotive historians, World War II scholars, and American history buffs.

Author : Gregory D. Sumner
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 50,60 MB
Release : 2015
Category : History
ISBN : 1467119474

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When President Roosevelt called for the country to be the great "Arsenal of Democracy," Detroit helped turn the tide against fascism with its industrial might. Locals were committed to the cause, putting careers and personal ambitions on hold. Factories were retooled from the ground up. Industrialist Henry Ford, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, aviator Charles Lindbergh, legendary boxer Joe Louis, future baseball Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg and the real-life Rosie the Riveters all helped drive the city that was "forging thunderbolts" for the front lines. With a panoramic narrative, author Gregory D. Sumner chronicles the wartime sacrifices, contributions and everyday life of the Motor City.

Author : Joshua Murray
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 17,6 MB
Release : 2019-06-13
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1610448871

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At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, automobile manufacturing was the largest, most profitable industry in the United States and residents of industry hubs like Detroit and Flint, Michigan had some of the highest incomes in the country. Over the last half-century, the industry has declined, and American automakers now struggle to stay profitable. How did the most prosperous industry in the richest country in the world crash and burn? In Wrecked, sociologists Joshua Murray and Michael Schwartz offer an unprecedented historical-sociological analysis of the downfall of the auto industry. Through an in-depth examination of labor relations and the production processes of automakers in the U.S. and Japan both before and after World War II, they demonstrate that the decline of the American manufacturers was the unintended consequence of their attempts to weaken the bargaining power of their unions. Today Japanese and many European automakers produce higher quality cars at lower cost than their American counterparts thanks to a flexible form of production characterized by long-term sole suppliers, assembly and supply plants located near each other, and just-in-time delivery of raw materials. While this style of production was, in fact, pioneered in the U.S. prior to World War II, in the years after the war, American automakers deliberately dismantled this system. As Murray and Schwartz show, flexible production accelerated innovation but also facilitated workers’ efforts to unionize plants and carry out work stoppages. To reduce the efficacy of strikes and combat the labor militancy that flourished between the Depression and the postwar period, the industry dispersed production across the nation, began maintaining large stockpiles of inventory, and eliminated single sourcing. While this restructuring of production did ultimately reduce workers’ leverage, it also decreased production efficiency and innovation. The U.S. auto industry has struggled ever since to compete with foreign automakers, and formerly thriving motor cities have suffered the consequences of mass deindustrialization. Murray and Schwartz argue that new business models that reinstate flexible production and prioritize innovation rather than cheap labor could stem the outsourcing of jobs and help revive the auto industry. By clarifying the historical relationships between production processes, organized labor, and industrial innovation, Wrecked provides new insights into the inner workings and decline of the U.S. auto industry.