Images from the Arsenal of Democracy

The visual record provided in Images from the Arsenal of Democracy is remarkable.

~Donald Lateiner, Michigan War Studies Review

An impressive, unique, and documented body of work, "Images From The Arsenal of Democracy" is very highly recommended as a core addition to 20th Century American Photography and 20th Century American History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

~James A. Cox, Wisconsin Bookwatch: Midwest Book Review

This is not just a companion piece; the shear scope of these photos make it a valuable resource for the times and a powerful reminder as to the huge advantage Detroit made to the Allied cause.

~Susan Paton, Central Michigan University, Michigan Historical Review

The book focuses on the plants where the foundations of victory were laid. We see the construction of huge new factories that made all this possible with the corresponding issues of expanding housing, transport and other infrastructure essential to the lives of the army of people doing the vital manufacturing work. There is a chapter on the change the war forced on a traditionally white male dominated industry as ethnic minorities and especially women came to the fore. But the real meat and drink is the archive photography depicting war weapons under construction. The phases of production and the immense amount of machinery produced by the American auto industry and it's many component suppliers is bewildering, with everything from tanks to binoculars represented.

~Mark Barnes, War History Online

In Arsenal of Democracy: The American Automobile Industry in World War II ($39.95, Wayne State University Press) Charles K. Hyde pulls together an amazing array of photographs that detail that transition to wartime production.

~Steve Wilke, Hour Detroit

Images from the Arsenal of Democracy is a fascinating photographic survey of the prodigious contributions of the American automobile industry to the Allied victory in World War II. The images of the industry's productive achievements are deeply impressive, as are those of the men and women who wrought these miracles of production.

~Rudi Volti

The monumental production effort of political and military leaders and laborers—African Americans, whites, women, and little people—is captured here in dramatic photographs that freeze the World War II era in time. The workers use jigs, fixtures, machine tools, and rivet guns to produce essential war materiel and weapons. They make engines, jeeps, trucks, tanks, planes, guns, bombs, and bullets. The book is a visual tour de force, and Hyde's short text and captions concisely explain what the reader is looking at.

~Larry Lankton