A Call to Arms is a World War II history where the only battles are those taking place on the home front. These battles are mostly for the limited resources---manpower and materials---to support the armed conflict overseas. It also reports on the bureaucratic---and ego---battles taking place between heads of government agencies, unions, management, politicians, and others. Finally, it reports the significant changes in American society, not all of which were for the good.
We are taught when war was declared all of America turned out to help. Well, a lot of that did happen, but when reading this book I wondered if some of our "homeland enemies" weren't just as bad as the Axis.
To appreciate this book you should be a devoted reader of World War II history, as much of the bureaucratic mess, while sometimes interesting, is often boring. Even I started scanning some of the bureaucratic ego battles. Yet, it displays the agony of trying to manage the limited resources when so many factions want it all. Franklin Roosevelt doesn't come across well in this history, but then many books credit his New Deal with saving America, when it was the massive expansion of the war plants which restored our economy and ended the Depression.
What I really enjoyed was the author constantly reporting in each chapter on the sociological changes throughout America while we geared up for war, finally outproduced the Axis and then began the adjustment to a peace-time economy. I was surprised he only mentioned the G.I. Bill once, as this was a major factor in the great post-war economy.
Tens of millions of Americans moved, often cross-country, due to the demand of labor needs and the promise of high wages. It was truly the greatest migration in our history, and it came at a cost.
Civilian health care suffered due to the demands of the military for doctors and nurses, juvenile delinquency soared due to the absence of parental supervision and families separated from relatives, and cases of VD reached new highs, especially among young girls. While workers were making more money than ever before, there was often nothing to spend it on, as most factories converted to making war materials and common household goods and services were impossible to find. Just as an example, one factory lured workers by offering in-house shoe repair for it's workers. Another worked with local farmers to set up fruit and vegetable stalls outside it's gates.
Despite the high wages, decent housing was almost impossible to find. In some areas, beds were rented out to three workers on three different shifts who fell into beds still warm from the previous occupant. Due to this and other factors, labor turnover in some plants was 50% or more a month. Finally, and this is not surprising, factories frantically needing workers in the South refused to hire Negroes, those in the West refused to hire Hispanics and all across the nation women were turned away. As you might expect, all that eventually changed.
I've always considered the evacuation of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast as one of our nation's greatest embarrassments. It was FDR who gave his okay to this policy, just one reason I dislike him. But after white farmers took over the farms of the Japanese-Americans who were outproducing them, I was astonished to read these white farmers begged the government to return the Japanese-Americans to harvest the fruit and vegetables on the farms stolen from them. Thank God that didn't happen.
Of course there was an answer to the needs of civilian workers. The author calls it "Mr. Black," as it was the Black Market. My mother had her own story of black market olives being delivered to her in-laws house as late as 1946. One thing the book does report, is the true reason gasoline was rationed in World War II was to save rubber. America had plenty of gasoline, but the natural rubber producing regions were now controlled by our enemies. Still, if you wanted extra gas, or almost anything else which was rationed, including meat, liquor or whatever, Mr. Black was there to serve you.
To counter the inflation due to limited goods and the high wages, the U.S. Tax Code was heavily revised to include more people. In 1942, only 7% of Americans paid income taxes, but by 1944 64% were. And you had to make less than $645 to avoid paying taxes. As if that wasn't bad enough, all taxpayers also had to pay a 5% Victory Tax. I wonder who came up with that idea? However, the book revealed the name of the government bureaucrat who came up with the idea for tax-withholding. We need to find out where he was born, so we can turn it into an EPA toxic waste site. :-)
We are taught when war was declared all of America turned out to help. Well, a lot of that did happen, but when reading this book I wondered if some of our "homeland enemies" weren't just as bad as the Axis.
To appreciate this book you should be a devoted reader of World War II history, as much of the bureaucratic mess, while sometimes interesting, is often boring. Even I started scanning some of the bureaucratic ego battles. Yet, it displays the agony of trying to manage the limited resources when so many factions want it all. Franklin Roosevelt doesn't come across well in this history, but then many books credit his New Deal with saving America, when it was the massive expansion of the war plants which restored our economy and ended the Depression.
What I really enjoyed was the author constantly reporting in each chapter on the sociological changes throughout America while we geared up for war, finally outproduced the Axis and then began the adjustment to a peace-time economy. I was surprised he only mentioned the G.I. Bill once, as this was a major factor in the great post-war economy.
Tens of millions of Americans moved, often cross-country, due to the demand of labor needs and the promise of high wages. It was truly the greatest migration in our history, and it came at a cost.
Civilian health care suffered due to the demands of the military for doctors and nurses, juvenile delinquency soared due to the absence of parental supervision and families separated from relatives, and cases of VD reached new highs, especially among young girls. While workers were making more money than ever before, there was often nothing to spend it on, as most factories converted to making war materials and common household goods and services were impossible to find. Just as an example, one factory lured workers by offering in-house shoe repair for it's workers. Another worked with local farmers to set up fruit and vegetable stalls outside it's gates.
Despite the high wages, decent housing was almost impossible to find. In some areas, beds were rented out to three workers on three different shifts who fell into beds still warm from the previous occupant. Due to this and other factors, labor turnover in some plants was 50% or more a month. Finally, and this is not surprising, factories frantically needing workers in the South refused to hire Negroes, those in the West refused to hire Hispanics and all across the nation women were turned away. As you might expect, all that eventually changed.
I've always considered the evacuation of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast as one of our nation's greatest embarrassments. It was FDR who gave his okay to this policy, just one reason I dislike him. But after white farmers took over the farms of the Japanese-Americans who were outproducing them, I was astonished to read these white farmers begged the government to return the Japanese-Americans to harvest the fruit and vegetables on the farms stolen from them. Thank God that didn't happen.
Of course there was an answer to the needs of civilian workers. The author calls it "Mr. Black," as it was the Black Market. My mother had her own story of black market olives being delivered to her in-laws house as late as 1946. One thing the book does report, is the true reason gasoline was rationed in World War II was to save rubber. America had plenty of gasoline, but the natural rubber producing regions were now controlled by our enemies. Still, if you wanted extra gas, or almost anything else which was rationed, including meat, liquor or whatever, Mr. Black was there to serve you.
To counter the inflation due to limited goods and the high wages, the U.S. Tax Code was heavily revised to include more people. In 1942, only 7% of Americans paid income taxes, but by 1944 64% were. And you had to make less than $645 to avoid paying taxes. As if that wasn't bad enough, all taxpayers also had to pay a 5% Victory Tax. I wonder who came up with that idea? However, the book revealed the name of the government bureaucrat who came up with the idea for tax-withholding. We need to find out where he was born, so we can turn it into an EPA toxic waste site. :-)
