Summary
Despite all of the problems associated with mobilization during World War II, the achievement was remarkable. Exploiting the happy conjunction of circumstances offered by idle resources, the protection provided by its insular position, and the heroic resistance of its Allies, the United States developed, produced and delivered a flood of equipment and supplies for its own and Allied troops. The country showed a preeminent capability for what R. Elberton Smith characterized as "technological warfare on a global scale" and furnished the Allies with decisive economic and industrial power. This accomplishment was planned and carried out in a way that accomplished wartime objectives with minimum hardship and dislocation. Sometimes execution of this effort was messy, with overlapping agencies and construction and supply lagging behind recruitment, but the World War II experience in the development and use of American industrial capacity may well be remembered as the classic case of economic mobilization, running the gamut from planning, buildup, full-scale war production, and quick deployment of both men and materials.
This massive effort had an additional benefit and that was to lead the United States out of the grips of depression that had plagued it since the stock market crash of 1929. Almost every able bodied American was either in the Armed Forces (employed and getting paid) or employed in the massive manufacturing effort to produce war goods in the factories which ran 24-hours a day seven days a week.
The recruitment of soldiers and sailors as well as the employment of others in manufacturing dropped the unemployment rate a pre-war high of 17.2% to a low of 1.2% between 1941 and 1944.
In addition to the employment of work forces and the tremendous technological accomplishment that took place there were many aspects of the mobilization efforts that would impact social issues of the time. For example women entering the work force and the contributions made by African-Americans would impact the United States for decades after the war ended leading to the removal of segregation first in the armed forces and later in the United States as a whole and the change in the working environment that must now deal with women who were determined to continue to work.
Despite all of the problems associated with mobilization during World War II, the achievement was remarkable. Exploiting the happy conjunction of circumstances offered by idle resources, the protection provided by its insular position, and the heroic resistance of its Allies, the United States developed, produced and delivered a flood of equipment and supplies for its own and Allied troops. The country showed a preeminent capability for what R. Elberton Smith characterized as "technological warfare on a global scale" and furnished the Allies with decisive economic and industrial power. This accomplishment was planned and carried out in a way that accomplished wartime objectives with minimum hardship and dislocation. Sometimes execution of this effort was messy, with overlapping agencies and construction and supply lagging behind recruitment, but the World War II experience in the development and use of American industrial capacity may well be remembered as the classic case of economic mobilization, running the gamut from planning, buildup, full-scale war production, and quick deployment of both men and materials.
This massive effort had an additional benefit and that was to lead the United States out of the grips of depression that had plagued it since the stock market crash of 1929. Almost every able bodied American was either in the Armed Forces (employed and getting paid) or employed in the massive manufacturing effort to produce war goods in the factories which ran 24-hours a day seven days a week.
The recruitment of soldiers and sailors as well as the employment of others in manufacturing dropped the unemployment rate a pre-war high of 17.2% to a low of 1.2% between 1941 and 1944.
In addition to the employment of work forces and the tremendous technological accomplishment that took place there were many aspects of the mobilization efforts that would impact social issues of the time. For example women entering the work force and the contributions made by African-Americans would impact the United States for decades after the war ended leading to the removal of segregation first in the armed forces and later in the United States as a whole and the change in the working environment that must now deal with women who were determined to continue to work.