American Business During World War II Essay

World War II -- Techniques Adopted by American Businesses to Expand War Production

During World War II, American industry geared up with several highly effective techniques. These techniques included but were not limited to: absorbing factories and workers idled by the Great Depression, building new factories in new geographical areas, attracting workers from rural areas to industrial areas, using blacks and women in significantly greater numbers, and using/improving mass production. Through these methods, U.S. industry met the military demands of World War II and made America rich by the war's conclusion.

American businesses expanded World War II production in several ways, discussed here in no particular order of importance. First, America used existing factories and built many new ones while it also used idle workers and attracted new ones. Post-Depression American was saddled with a significant number of unemployed workers and idle factories; however, by the summer of 1941, more than half of the American industrial workforce was under military orders,[footnoteRef:1] as war sped up the process of building up home industries.[footnoteRef:2] Private contractors eventually had huge government contracts to supply everything from combat boots to airplanes.[footnoteRef:3] Struggling to meet these demands, American industry underwent a fast and drastic buildup.[footnoteRef:4] In 1940, American industrial utilization averaged 40 hours per week; by 1944, it averaged 90 hours per week.[footnoteRef:5] Unemployed workers and idle factories from the Depression were absorbed and used.[footnoteRef:6] In addition, a large number of deferments were granted to allow people to work in industry.[footnoteRef:7] Millions of women were also drawn into industrial and other types of work for the war effort,[footnoteRef:8] while industry also employed blacks who migrated to factories in the North and Midwest.[footnoteRef:9] Finally, along with the use of existing factories, new factories were built in California, the Northwest and the South.[footnoteRef:10] [1: Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won (New York, NY W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1997), p. 193. Overy, p. 200.] [2: Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p.492.] [3: Ibid., p.494.] [4: Ibid.] [5: John Keegan, The Battle for History: Re-Fighting World War II (New York, NY: First Vintage Books Edition, 1996), p. 95.] [6: Weinberg, p. 494.] [7: Ibid., p. 471.] [8: Ibid., p. 496.] [9: Ibid., p. 495.] [10: Ibid.]

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