America at the beginning of 1917 was a nation mobilizing for war. It was also a nation potentially capable of developing the world’s first mass consumption economy. Institutionally and ideologically it was a nation without the institutions capable of ensuring that the new sources of authority would be used to further the ends of liberal democracy and national progress. This highly regarded volume reexamines America’s historical development during the years from 1917 to 1933, focusing in particular on wartime mobilization and action as well as the rise and collapse of the world’s first mass consumption economy. Hawley also explores the continued search for a modern managerial order geared to the realization of liberal ideals during this period.