The Dallas Story

“The Dallas Story makes a novel contribution to a much-needed literature, specific studies of industrial mobilization in practice. It bolsters an important aspect of wider World War II literature, namely works that demonstrate the crucial contribution that industrial mobilization made to Allied victory. Furgerson has done a masterful job at analyzing an untold local history, conducting intensive research over the course of many years, and producing an intriguing story contextualized within the broader contours of industrial mobilization during World War II.”—William A. Taylor, author of Military Service and American Democracy and editor of George C. Marshall and the Early Cold War
 
“The Dallas Story contains a richness of sources that offers previously unseen or inaccessible perspectives on a series of critical events that shaped the nation’s readiness for WWII and helped establish Dallas as a modern, urban metropolis in the postwar years. Furgerson has righted a historic wrong to an amazing extent. There was a generation of north Texas people who fought the war, and won it from Dallas, on a factory floor. These people were then forgotten.”—Keegan Chetwynd, director of the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia
 
“There are volumes written about the P-51 Mustang and T-6 Texan, but little attention has been given to the incredible people who built those legendary planes and the historic place where they worked in Dallas, Texas. Fortunately, Furgerson has filled that void with an impressive, well-researched and detailed history of North American Aviation’s Dallas plant—a very welcome and valuable addition to aviation history.”—Michael Lombardi, Senior Corporate Historian for The Boeing Company and North American Aviation
 
“Terrance Furgerson’s well-researched work fills a serious void in the aviation lore of North Texas and the overall story of American wartime production during World War II. From conception to closure, Furgerson eloquently details the sparsely documented story of North American Aviation’s Dallas manufacturing plant, which became the nation’s most prolific aviation factory and produced its most iconic wartime aircraft.”—Bruce A. Bleakley, author of Dallas Aviation and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
 

"Furgerson has illuminated various moving parts of a vast undertaking while providing avenues to explore further. His telling of the Dallas story is accessible to general audiences and of particular interest to those wanting to learn more about industrial organization and the massive, collaborative efforts to produce weapons and workers for World War II and beyond."--H-Net Sci-Med-Tech

"Furgerson’s is a two-part story driven by decisions in Washington and Dallas. A large part of the story is about finding thousands of workers and training them in the complicated process of aircraft manufacturing. . . . NAA in Grand Prairie built many of the nearly 300,000 warplanes that helped win World War II."--Southwestern Historical Quarterly

"In this comprehensive history of the North American Aviation (NAA) plant in Dallas, Terrance Furgerson expertly weaves together the history of wartime production, labor issues, economics, and politics to provide an important look into the history of the defense industry during war. . . . The history of the NAA plant in Dallas reveals not only the complex history of wartime mobilization during World War II but provides a foundation for understanding the intertwined relationship between industry and the military that continues into the present."--Military Review

"Of particular interest is Furgerson's use of a variety of local periodicals that create a vivid picture of the local scene across the greater Dallas area as Texas politicians, community planners, trade boosters, business leaders, and neighborhood associations both transformed the economy and tied Dallas into the bur­geoning arsenal of democracy."--Technology and Culture