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Title details for The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941 by Paul Dickson - Available

The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941

The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor

by Paul Dickson
Shawn Compton
Audiobook
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The story of America's astounding industrial mobilization during World War II has been told. But what has never been chronicled before Paul Dickson's The Rise of the G. I. Army, 1940-1941 is the extraordinary transformation of America's military from a disparate collection of camps with dilapidated equipment into a well-trained and spirited army ten times its prior size in little more than eighteen months. From Franklin Roosevelt's selection of George C. Marshall to be Army Chief of Staff to the remarkable peace-time draft of 1940 and the massive and unprecedented mock battles in Tennessee, Louisiana, and the Carolinas by which the skill and spirit of the Army were forged and out of which iconic leaders like Eisenhower, Bradley, and Clark emerged; Dickson narrates America's urgent mobilization against a backdrop of political and cultural isolationist resistance and racial tension at home, and the increasingly perceived threat of attack from both Germany and Japan.
An important addition to American history, The Rise of the G. I. Army, 1940-1941 is essential to our understanding of America's involvement in World War II.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 25, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781705211175
      • File size: 393799 KB
      • Duration: 13:40:24

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 4, 2020
      Historian Dickson (Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son) delivers an exhaustive chronicle of U.S. Army efforts to prepare for WWII. Noting that the army grew from less than 200,000 men to 4.5 million between the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the one-year anniversary of Pearl Harbor in December 1942, Dickson credits U.S. Army chief of staff George C. Marshall for tapping the Civilian Conservation Corps for seasoned officers, directing large-scale training exercises that tested the army’s expeditionary capabilities, and purging poor-performing generals from the ranks. Meanwhile, lawmakers overcame isolationist rhetoric to pass the first peacetime draft in American history, and then extend the minimum term of duty from 12 to 30 months. Dickson also documents the contributions of generals including Omar Bradley, George Patton, and Dwight Eisenhower; preparations for the invasion of North Africa in November 1942; and frustrations of African-American soldiers fighting in a segregated army. Dickson marches readers through his voluminous research at a brisk clip, and makes a convincing case that if the army hadn’t been transformed, the war would have been lost. WWII buffs and military history readers will salute this stirring effort.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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