War is almost always an agent of tremendous social change, and World War II proved no exception. Much attention has been devoted to the role of American women in defense plants and to the stimulus that the war provided to the civil rights movement, to name just two examples, but other changes were also important. Indeed, the conjunction of the Great Depression, the late New Deal, and European war fundamentally altered the contours of the modern American state, while U.S. entry into the conflict itself consolidated these changes.

The personnel and structure of the U.S. state was transformed even before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. During the period from 1939 to 1941, a small band of visionary businessmen accepted key positions within the federal government; they chose cooperation with the Roosevelt administration rather than joining mainstream capitalists in opposition to the reform-minded New Deal. Known collectively as corporate liberals, these businessmen-bureaucrats helped strengthen the United States’ national defense during a time of weakness. In the process, the U.S. state grew larger and more powerful, developing a greater planning capacity than ever before in its history. By December 7, 1941, a modified American state had emerged, wherein corporate liberals had effectively substituted their version of state building for that advocated by ardent New Dealers and organized labor.The resultant institutional configuration ensured ample provisions for the military, while big businessmen received better treatment than any other group within U.S. society.

This general state of affairs persisted throughout World War II.Whereas the military lacked weapons up to August 1939, it possessed a multitude of arms and munitions by 1942 and even more thereafter. Allied nations also benefited from American plenty. By December 7, 1942, the United States alone outproduced all Axis nations combined. Given economic realities and the time frame, this result would have been impossible without corporate liberal exertions during the preparedness period. Even after World War II ended, the military-industrial complex and big business dominance of the political economy remained fixtures of American life.

Corporate liberalism, however, did not arrive full blown in 1939 or 1941; it is a strain of enlightened business thinking that has been influential throughout the twentieth century. This philosophy holds that corporate capitalism is the best economic system ever conceived, but it is not perfect, and must therefore be reformed from time to time.