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Democracy s arsenal 民主阵营的兵工厂 Freedom s Forge: How American Business ProducedVictory in World War II. By Arthur Herman. 《铸就自由：美国工业如何赢得了二战》亚瑟赫尔曼著。 WHAT is America but beauty queens,millionaires, stupid records and Hollywood? askedAdolf Hitler in 1940. With hindsight, this ranks as just about the most foolish rhetoricalquestion posed during the second world war. But it did not seem so at the time. As ArthurHerman shows in his wartime history, when Hitler mocked its prowess America hadexperienced not so much a double-dip as a double-dive depression. Yet somehow thecountrys moribund military-industrial complex was able to respond with great force toPresident Franklin Roosevelts call to arms. 除了选美皇后、百万富翁、可笑的记录和好莱坞，美国还有啥?阿道夫?希特勒1940年这样问。现在回头看，这几乎可以算二战期间人们提出的最愚蠢的问题了。但当时情况看来并非如此。正如赫尔曼在他的这本二战历史著作中告诉读者的那样，当希特勒嘲讽美国最瑰丽的光环时，美国经济刚刚经历了一次二次萧条。但这个国家濒死的军工产业却依然能以浩瀚无匹的力量回应了弗兰克林?罗斯福总统对武器的召唤。 The production statistics cited by Mr Herman, a think-tank scholar at the AmericanEnterprise Institute, still astound. Preparations for war got off to a stuttering start. Buteverything changed in 1941 when Germany invaded Russia and then Japan attacked theAmerican naval base at Pearl Harbour. By the end of 1942 Americas output of war materielalready exceeded the combined production of the three Axis powers, Germany, Italy andJapan. By 1944 its factories built a plane every five minutes while its shipyards launched 50merchant ships a day and eight aircraft carriers a month. | 
