Freedom's Forge (54 page)

THIS BOOK IS
a special salute to the millions of Americans who worked in the factories, shipyards, mines, farms, plants, and offices to make victory in World War II possible—and to those who spoke to me about their service and sacrifice during those years. We all owe a permanent debt of gratitude to them.

Writing this book was an amazing experience. So many wonderful people shared their time, thoughts, and labor to make it happen, and I’m pleased to have the opportunity to thank as many of them as I can.

I start with the American Enterprise Institute, where I served as a visiting scholar from September 2010 to May 2012. AEI’s former president Chris DeMuth was enthusiastic about the project from the start, saw its rich possibilities, and offered invaluable advice at every stage. AEI’s current president, Arthur Brooks, warmly extended every resource AEI had to offer, as did its executive vice president, David Gerson. Henry Olsen, director of the National Research Initiative, made sure support for the book was there at critical times, and helped me enormously in understanding the book’s lessons for the present.

The list of AEI colleagues who helped in my research is staggeringly long, but certain names stand out: Joe Antos, Michael Auslin, Claude Barfield, Michael Barone, Kevin Hassett, Bob Helms, Marvin Kosters, Michael Novak, and Alex Pollock, as well as Tom Donnelly and Gary Schmitt of AEI’s Center for Defense Studies. Véronique Rodman encouraged me to think creatively about the book’s many audiences, as did John Cusey of AEI’s Government Relations Office. And a very special thanks goes to my research assistant Keriann Hopkins, who tirelessly helped with the research and then correcting the typescript and galleys, and tracked down books, images, and photo permissions with riveting diligence. Thanks also to interns Joey McCoy and Harrison Dietzmann for their help along the way.

One of the first people I spoke to about this project was my friend Roger Hertog, a champion and advocate of all my work. Paul Johnson and Steve Forbes helped to shape many of the book’s major themes, as did Dan Senor and the Discovery Institute’s George Gilder. And every historian venturing into the arena of industrial mobilization during World War II owes an enormous debt to Alan Gropman of the National Defense University, Professor Mark Harrison of the University of Warwick, and Professor Richard Overy, author of
How the Allies Won
. Without their prior work, this project would not have been possible.

Grateful thanks also go to the staff of the National Automotive History Collection at the Detroit Public Library and the Henry J. Kaiser Papers at the University of California, Berkeley’s Bancroft Library; the Library of Congress; the Henry Ford Collection; the National Archives at College Park, Maryland; the libraries at Georgetown University and George Washington University; the New York Public Library; the Navy Historical Center at the Washington Shipyards; and the U.S. Army Center of Military History at Fort McNair, particularly its former chief archivist Frank Shirer; as well as the friendly people who run the Rosie the Riveter Trust at the Home Front National Park in Richmond, California.

The Cosmos Club Library, and librarian Karen Mark, helped with the earliest stages of my research. Staff past and present from the Grumman History Center at Bethpage, New York, answered many important questions, while the resources for studying the history of American business at the Hagley Library and Archives in Wilmington, Delaware, are matched only by the helpfulness of the staff and the beauty and comfort of its surroundings.

The libraries at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, especially the Brown Science and Engineering Library, were indispensable to the project from start to finish, as were the efforts of librarians Philip McEldowney and Warner Granade in making my work as painless and trouble free as possible.

I also want to thank the many people who agreed to sit down for interviews about parents and grandparents who were central to the book. They included Fred Eberstadt, Peter and Clay Bedford Junior, Richard Girdler, and Judith Knudsen Christie. Ms. Christie also kindly
gave me permission to read the unpublished oral history interview of her aunt and Bill Knudsen’s daughter, Martha Knudsen. Warren Kidder, author of
Willow Run: Colossus of American Industry
, offered interesting insights about working with Henry Kaiser in the postwar years. And many years ago the late John J. McCloy generously took time to answer my questions about working with the legendary Colonel Henry L. Stimson at the War Department.

Automotive scholar Mike Davis kindly took time to read the first chapter of the book, while Bob Brown, editor of
Magnesium Monthly Review
, not only read chapters but provided help with everything from documenting Henry Kaiser’s magnesium ventures to finding me a B-29 pilot’s manual. My friend Jeb Nadaner, formerly of the Department of Defense and now at Lockheed Martin, carefully followed the book’s progress and offered suggestions and insights that all helped to make it a better book.

Tom Veblen’s friendship, support, and sage counsel decisively charted the book’s course, and he kindly read an early draft of the manuscript. Linda Veblen’s hospitality and her reminiscences of her father’s service as a B-25 pilot in Italy also helped to understand the real meaning of the arsenal of democracy. My editor at the
New York Post
, Bob McManus, saw the significance of the project and passed along materials to help.

Other friends offered advice, encouragement, read early chapters, or generally put me on to the right research trail. They include (again, in alphabetical order) Captain Joseph Callo, USN (ret.); James Capua; Mike Du Pont; my former
Commentary
editor, Neal Kozodoy; my brother-in-law Captain Keith Krapels, USN; John W. Miller; Chet Nagle; Mark J Reed; Ivor Tiefenbrun; and Kevin Weir. Arlene Anns generously opened her private collection of materials relating to
American Machinist
magazine during the war years, and Philip Anns, ex-Hellcat pilot and Royal Navy (ret.), provided special inspiration and expert help. Friend and neighbor Len Wolowicz helped me to solve the problem of why Liberty ships developed cracks, and answered innumerable questions about the wartime steel industry.

So many scholars helped with individual chapters or problems both literary and archival, I can’t list them all, but certain ones deserve special
mention: Max Boot, Carlo D’Este, Victor Davis Hanson, Tim Kane, Richard Langworth, Andrew Roberts, Alex Rose, and Mark Wilson of the University of North Carolina–Charlotte.

My editor at Random House, Jonathan Jao, not only read and edited early drafts with an expert eye, but inadvertently contributed to the book’s birth in 2009 by asking me what I
really
wanted to write about after
Gandhi & Churchill
. My agents Glen Hartley and Lynn Chu relished the project from the start almost as much as I did. My parents, Arthur and Barbara Herman, read chapters, sent research materials, and reminisced about life in home front America in ways that helped to make the book more authentic.

My most important debt however, is to my wife, Beth. She understood the importance of this book almost from the moment I started working on it, and put up with the piles of books, diagrams, and back issues of
American Machinist, Business Week
, and
Fortune
that threatened to devour our house. She read early drafts of chapters, and I couldn’t have completed
Freedom’s Forge
without her. She has stuck with me through thick and thin.

That is why the book is lovingly dedicated to her.