Largely experimental, the formation of civilian agencies allowed the United States to respond quickly to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Directing every aspect of American life toward effective and efficient mobilization, the agencies increased United States military production to a level equaling the combined output of Germany, Russia, Japan and Great Britain. In addition, the civilian agencies dealt with the urgent domestic problems of inflation, fuel shortage and dislocation of the work force. The fact that mobilization toward the ultimate goal of victory was affected without destroying the brittle political and economic fabric of the country is a credit to the people who made the agencies function.

The titles in this collection were originally produced under the Second World War History Program of the Federal Government. The histories were initially the work of the War Records Section of the Division of Administrative Management of the Bureau of the Budget. In March 1942, the program evolved into the Committee on Records of War Administration and was staffed by a distinguished group of historians, political scientists and economists. This collection comes with a detailed guide, in the form of a dictionary catalog arranged by author, title, subject and added entries.