What they're saying ...
“A touching and absorbing portrait of one of the forgotten heroes of World War II . . . A. J. Baime has given us a memorable portrait not just of an industry going to war but of a remarkable figure who helped to make victory possible.”
Wall Street Journal
“Fast-paced . . . the story certainly entertains.”
New York Times
“A.J. Baime has a great way of telling a story. We didn’t just win World War II because we had the best soldiers. We did it because we could build airplanes literally faster than the Germans could shoot them down. An exciting read.”
Jay Leno
New York Times bestseller.
The story of the dramatic transformation of Detroit from the “Motor City" to the "Arsenal of Democracy," and how the American car industry played a crucial role in winning World War II.
As the United States entered World War II, the military was in desperate need of tanks, jeeps, and, most important, airplanes. So President Roosevelt turned to the American auto industry, specifically the Ford Motor Company, where Edsel Ford (Henry’s only son) made the outrageous claim that he would construct the largest airplane factory in the world, a plant that could build a “bomber an hour.” And so began one of the most fascinating and overlooked chapters in American industrial history.
Drawing on unique access to archival material and exhaustive research, A. J. Baime has crafted a riveting work of narrative nonfiction that hopscotches from Detroit to Washington to Normandy, from the assembly lines to the frontlines, and from the depths of professional and personal failure to the heights that Ford Motor Company and the American military ultimately achieved in the sky.
