Arsenal of World War II : the political economy of American warfare, 1940-1945 / Paul A.C. Koistinen.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Pt. 1. National Defense Advisory Commission -- 1. Origins, structure, and staffing of the NDAC -- 2. The military and economic mobilization -- 3. The NDAC in operation -- Pt. 2. The Office of Production Management and the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board -- 4. Structure and staffing of OPM, OPACS, and SPAB -- 5. The military and OPM -- 6. OPM, OPACS, and the struggle to expand production -- 7. OPM's labor, purchases, and priorities divisions and SPAB -- Pt. 3. The war production board, 1942-1945 -- 8. WPB : organization and staffing -- 9. The armed services' material organization for World War II -- 10. National and international mobilization agencies -- 11. Converting and expanding industry, 1942 -- 12. Refining WPB economic controls, 1942 -- 13. The WPB at flood tide, 1943-1944 -- 14. Organized labor in a mobilized economy, 1940-1945 : labor supply -- 15. Organized labor in a mobilized economy, 1940-1945 : labor relations -- 16. Economic stabilization -- 17. Reconversion -- 18. Mobilizing the World War II economy.

"In chronicling American mobilization, Koistinen reveals how representatives of industry and the armed services expanded upon their growing prewar ties to shape policies for harnessing the economy, and how federal agencies were subsequently riven with dissension as New Deal reformers and anti-New Deal corporate elements battled for control over mobilization itself. As the armed services emerged as the principal customers of a command economy, the military-industrial nexus consolidated its power and ultimately succeeded in bending the reformers to its will." "Arsenal of World War II shows that mobilization meant more than simply harnessing the economy for war; it also involved struggles for power and position among a great many interest groups and ideologies. Nearly two decades in the making, it provides an ambitious and enormously insightful overview of the emergence of the military-industrial economy, one that resonates today as America continues to wage wars around the globe."--BOOK JACKET.