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 Americäs victory and of the struggles of civilians on the home front.

This is the fourth Arcadia book by veteran automotive historian and journalist Michael W. R. Davis, graduate of Yale and Eastern Michigan Universities and former executive director of the Detroit Historical Society. Previous books have related the histories of Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors. Davis, a resident of the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, is a longtime trustee of the Detroit Public Library s National Automotive History Collection, the source of many images in this book. He also serves as a director of the Defense Orientation Conference Association, a nonpartisan educational organization of civilians devoted to understanding U.S. defense and foreign policy.