Just stumbled across this series on Utoob
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfMrqOdrCidQ2gpuSIxW07ylqTu0Fln3vIt's primarily a look at the Allied and Axis production efforts that fueled World War II, but it does apparently dip into World War I a bit and moves into the 1950s.
The incredible pivot of moving the US from a depressed civilian production footing to the single most production economic powerhouse in world history in the span of less than a decade has always fascinated me.
Some of the statistics and figures I've come across over the years are just stunning, such as...
By 1944, when the United States began to ramp back wartime production and began releasing more consumer goods, it's estimated that the US economy had been only 2/3rds converted to war production.
In 1939 the United States Navy was either the 3rd or 4th largest navy in the world. By wars end in 1945 it was more than double the sides of the rest of the world's navies combined.
The 7 major warring powers (USA, Russia, France, Britain, Japan, Italy, and Germany) controlled 90.5% of the world's war-making potential. The United States controlled 41.7% of it, number 2, Germany, controlled 14.4%. (that comes from Paul Kennedy's work)
And the one that has always truly boggled my mind? In the first 6 months of 1943 the United States put nearly DOUBLE the tonnage of merchant shipping in the water that Japan did... in its nearly 7 years at war. For the 7 war years (including the 3 where the US wasn't at war) the US launched just shy of 34 million tons of merchant shipping. Japan, over the same period? Just over 4 million tons.
I'm going to be digging through this series in the next couple of weeks, and I'm sure it's going to be fascinating.