Norman Beasley presents the story of Signius Wilhelm Poul Knudsen, a young man who came to the U.S. with an unshakeable faith in American opportunity, an eye for efficiency, and twenty dollars in his pocket. Four decades later, that man would become Lieutenant General William S. Knudsen, the mind behind our country’s production at the most crucial point in modern history.

Knudsen began his time in American industry working odd jobs in shipyards and railroad shops, where fists resolved all arguments. He moved from job to job, each time running into a dead end, until he accepted a low-paying position working for a bicycle manufacturer. He worked his way up to foreman and immediately demonstrated his strength in production. The company’s output shot up, and it soon received an offer for purchase by Ford—with one of the primary conditions being that Knudsen come work for the emerging automobile giant.

At the rising Ford company, Knudsen refined the methods of mass production that allowed the Model T to become a true “motor car for the multitude.” He brought Ford’s impossible dream of offering high wages, high-quality products, and low prices to fruition, revolutionizing the industry. Ford soon sold more cars than all other American automobile manufacturers combined. When a dispute with Ford led Knudsen to work for Chevrolet instead, the new company rapidly climbed to the lead, making enormous profits while Ford struggled with losses. When World War Two dawned on the horizon, President Roosevelt knew he needed to increase production dramatically to give the country—and its allies—a fighting chance. He placed that responsibility on Knudsen’s shoulders.

Knudsen answered the President’s call, but came face-to-face with endless opposition. Union strikes ground production to a halt time and time again, party-minded politicians sought to root him out and replace him with one of their own, and the media spread slander about his motives and exaggerated every failure—all while America’s allies were being crushed beneath the power of the German and Japanese war machines. Yet, at the end of the war, Knudsen still held his position . . . and, thanks to its new capacity for mass production, the U.S. stood as the world’s greatest military and economic power. This inspiring story shows a man who believed in and achieved the American dream, and paid his adopted country back in full. Without Knudsen, America, and indeed the world, might have faced a much darker future.