On December 8, 1941, a day after the devastating Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. On December 12, one day after Japan's Axis partners declared war on the United States, Congress reciprocated. Having embarked on its second world war in a generation, the federal government stumbled forward in an attempt to mobilize the nation for its greatest challenge since the Civil War. Despite the experience it had gained from World War I and even though it had begun mobilization prior to December 1941, the government, for myriad reasons, was unprepared for war and never managed to fully organize the nation for the twentieth century's final global conflict.

Finance

World War II cost the United States over $130 billion, and wartime finance soon proved to be an issue where the federal government excelled. For the most part, Washington financed this war, as...