The greatest war machine in history

As Nazi Germany began to conquer Europe, America’s military was unprepared and poorly supplied. The Nazis were supported by robust German factories that created a seemingly endless flow of arms, trucks, tanks, airplanes, and submarines. The US, emerging from the Great Depression, was skeptical of American involvement in Europe and not ready to wage war.

In this deeply researched account, Craig Nelson traces how Franklin D. Roosevelt steadily put America on a war footing by convincing America’s top industrialists to retool their factories, by diverting the country’s supplies of raw materials to the war effort, and by encouraging the American people to endure shortages, to work in wartime factories, and to send their sons into harm’s way.

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